


Soul and Shield

by AutumnKei



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Blood, Corrupted Legal System, Crow has an accent, Cus I wanna be a dick head, Dancing, Dreams, Fainting, Fluff, Gangs, I do not know what I am doing, I'm Sorry, Kakiemeh - Fictional Country, Majic (Magic), Maybe - Freeform, Mayengin - Fictional Language, Mentions of Truma, Multi, Mysterious People, Nightmares, Original Universe, Possibly multiple slow burns, Sleep Disorder, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Some people up in here gonna have some issues, Souls, Swearing, Symbolism(?), Truma, Vomiting, Witches, amateur writer, and i don't know how to write accents..., bad shit, eventually, homeless people, how could i forget to add these tags, i'll add tags as i go, mysterious shit, sad shit, sleep paralysis, sorta? I guess?, we'll see where this goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-08-30 11:27:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 52,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8531257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnKei/pseuds/AutumnKei
Summary: Lensha was your average young woman.Working, socializing, being independent and all that. She loved her life, her friends, her job, her home, but she always felt that something was missing from her life.She felt oddly incomplete.Until someone found a girl in the forest.There is no real schedule on when a chapter will be uploaded. It will be uploaded when it's done.





	1. Hello, Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! So before yall start your decent into ... this mess, I would like to say that there are two other versions of this stories. One is an older text version which is almost completely different to this, and a comic that is currently in development, both of which had been made by myself. The text version has been discontinued and the comic version will be similar to this one but they may differ from each other in the future (idk really). I'll link em both anyway though. This version isn't really official or anything, its more like a long winded drabble. If you would like to avoid spoilers to the official story (The comic version) do not read this, since somethings that may happen in this story might/will happen in the other.
> 
> Also please alert me to any mistakes! I tend to read over these things a bunch of times but I always miss something x_x;.
> 
>  
> 
> [ Soul and Shield COMIC ](http://kodako-autumn.deviantart.com/gallery/59430825/Soul-and-Shield-COMIC)  
> [ Shitty Rendition of My Own Story ](http://kodako-autumn.deviantart.com/gallery/58399775/OLD-Soul-and-Shield-DONT-READ-THIS-ITS-BAD%20)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was pretty much a normal day, a shitty day but normal.  
> Until someone found a girl in the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ My Tumblr (It is ass) ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/kodako-autumn%20)   
>  [ My DA (it is also ass but slightly less ass?](http://kodako-autumn.deviantart.com/%20)

Her bed was lower and itchier than she remembered.

Lensha lifted herself off the ground and dusted off her large blue sleeping shirt and took in her surroundings. The ground that was covered in unusually radiant green grass. It looked radioactive really. She was surrounded by large oak trees dawning reddish-orange leaves, yet it was warm like spring. She tried took look deeper into the enclosing forest but she couldn't see past the first couple rows of trees. She appeared to be standing dead center in a large opening that was dotted with white, blue, red and yellow flowers. The opening was so large that it could easily be mistaken for a small meadow. It was beautiful, yet uncomfortably eerie.

Maybe it was because of the way the trees swayed when a hard breeze came in, maybe it was the fact she heard the leaves move but never actually heard the breeze itself, maybe it was because there weren't any animals. Either way the whole place made her feel uncomfortable. She wanted to leave but her only option was to go into the claustrophobic forest and there was no way in hell she was doing that, she watched too many horror movies to know how that goes down. So, she just stood awkwardly looking around and questioning her next decision.

After a few minutes she noticed that the sporadic breezes had stop and a deafening silence overtook her, or at least it would have if she didn't hear a twig snap. The sound echoed throughout the forest making it impossible for her to pinpoint where it came from or what had made the noise. Forced to rely on her eyes since her hearing was pretty much useless she began spinning around frantically, her eyes scanning as much as they could as quickly as they could. She only managed to make herself dizzy. She held her head as she felt the earth sway, while she stumbled about she swore that she saw a small figure in front of the trees towards the east. Or was it west? She didn't know which way was which to be honest. Her vision blurred and the earth began to slow as adrenaline began to coarse through her veins. She stared at the spot were she saw the figure only to see nothing, but that didn't mean that she was alone. Her skin began to crawl as she felt like she was being watched. Her breathing began to pick up, sweat rolled down her face, she could hear her heart beat wildly in her ears as her eyes darted every which way in fear.

She suddenly felt everything stop as if the universe itself had stopped moving. She heard a soft ringing in her ears and she felt the skin on her back burn and seemingly crawl as if it was sentient and was trying to run away from something.

Maybe it was the pair of eyes boring a hole into her back.

She wanted to run, scream, and fight all at the same time but she couldn't move. She was so still that she would have thought she had died from fear if it wasn't for the slight trembling in her hands and the feeling of sweat running down her neck. The ringing began to dissipate and her senses began to increase as even more adrenaline pumped through her veins with every frantic heartbeat. She could hear whatever was behind her wheezing as if it was struggling to breathe. _'Was it hurt?_ ' she immediately thought. She felt her body relax somewhat as worry took over her mind, she clenched her fists and slowly spun on her heel. She didn't know what to make of the sight before her.

She stood there dumbfounded as a small and decrepit deer fawn stood a couple feet away from her. It was shaking uncontrollably and tufts of its matted dark brown fur were missing. It glassy grey eyes bored into her like a drill that was dead set on hitting the very center of her being. The emaciated fawn took a shaky yet confident step forward, the sudden movement along with her internal tension reached its peak and set off all the bells and whistles in her head. Yet she didn't move, she couldn't move. Her mind demanded that she run as far away as she possibly could but her body seemed to have its own ambition. The best she could do was double over in pain when a sharp force stabbed the center of her chest when the fawn took yet another step closer. 

" ** _Something smolders within you..._** " she heard a voice speak right before the stabbing pain in her chest morphed into an intense burning all thought her body forcing a scream to rip through her throat. Despite the pain she felt the need to put a face to that voice. She forced herself to look up at the fawn, even though she highly doubted that the fawn spoke and it was complete agony to even move her head she had to know who or what was speaking to her. The fawn had gotten unbearably close to her, so close that she could feel and smell its breath, which smelt of a mixture of raw eggs and spoiled milk. Its eyes were now wider than she had ever seen on any living organism, if they weren't firmly in its sockets she was pretty sure they would pop out of its head. The fawn huffed its hot horrid breath onto her face making her gag.

 " _ **Will you let it die...?**_ " the fawn's pupils vanished and her vision began to fade in and out " **Or will you...** "

Her eyes finally shot open as she took in a gasp of air and scanned her surroundings in a panic. She quickly recognize the place as her room and tried to force herself not to hyperventilate, but that was pretty hard to do when you hear rapid thumping coming right towards you. The thumping stopped abruptly and she felt something land softly beside her. Before she could even think to look in the direction of where the thing had landed her face was assaulted with small rodent kisses, she already knew who this was.

"P-pum! Pffff, fwah! Ha ha, Pumpa, stop! I'm okay, I'm okaaay!" she managed between gasps of air as her pet rabbit licked her face. The sky eyed bunny always did this whenever she had a nightmare or woke up in a panic, he was sweet like that. After he was satisfied he ceased his adorable assault and sat comfortably on her knees, twitching his little nose as he watched her intently. She wanted to pet her little white cuddling companion but she was paralyzed. Most people would probably freak out if they woke up only to find out that they couldn't move but this had become such a regular occurrence for her that she was pleasantly surprised when she DIDN'T wake up paralyzed. She took in slow, deep breaths as she tried to attempted to move, gradually she regained control. First she could move her fingers and toes, then her arms, legs, head and neck, then finally the rest of her body got the message and she managed to sit up, Pumpa bouncing happily all over her bed for a bit before settling in her lap. Smiling she stroked his soft fur "How about we get some breakfast, huh buddy?" she sighed, he didn't move though. Only when she made the motion to actually get up is when he actually jumped onto the floor, hopped over to the doorway and waited for her (Such a gentlemen). He followed closely behind as they made their way to the kitchen, however someone was waiting for them as the end of the hall. 

The feared, the evil, the ruthless and most evil thing Lensha has ever encountered...!

Slippers. The rabbit.

This little demon may be the smallest and youngest of her rabbits but he was sure the meanest. He would beat up on Pumpa when he thought the eldest or Lensha wasn't looking, he'd steal not only his brother's but also her food, he was impatient, and thumped about the house when he was grumpy but he was always grumpy. So he was always thumpy. She sighed and squatted down closer to his level.

"Hey, Slippers, want some breakfast?" He didn't greet her, he didn't seem happy to see her, he just twitched his nose then turned around and hopped into the kitchen "I guess that means he is, huh?" she grumbled. She disgrudgingly followed the white haired, red eyed mini demon into the kitchen to find him already waiting in front of the fridge and already pissed off to Sunday, thumping his foot anger. She ignored his little hissy fit and nudged him out the way with her foot, he swatted at her a couple times as he was gently pushed off to the side. Pumpa of course stayed near the doorway for a quick escape just in case his younger brother decided to take his anger out on him, ' _poor guy_ ' she thought to herself as she dug though the one of the vegetable boxes labeled 'Rabbit Box'. She pulled out some celery, lettuce, carrots, some grapes, and the such. When she felt like she had enough she closed the door with her hip and saw that Slippers had already gone off to the living room (typical) and Pumpa was still sitting patiently by the doorway way. She scratched his head with her big toe before going to the living room where the rabbits took up their primary residence, where the ever lazy eldest brother spent pretty much all his time. He was laying in his usual spot in his usual position, on his stomach on a small round green rug, he didn't even open his eyes as his demon possessed little brother bounced all around him.  She shook her head in disappointment.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you're such a lazy bum, Tick." The fat lump of brownish-red fur with patches of light brown and white just rolled over, his back facing her. "Welp, I guess you just toooo lazy to eat breakfast~!" she teased. She snorted when he turned to look at her, his half opened orangish-brown eyes staring at her in anticipation but he still didn't get up. "That's what I thought." she chuckled as she put the food onto the food tray in front of the large enclosure. Slippers being the impatient brat that he was immediately began scarfing down as much food as possible. Pumpa hesitantly hopped up to the tray and snatched a carrot and ate it further away from the tray to avoid his brother's wraith, even though they were in the presence of their big bro, he was still very wary around him. Tick himself just ate like any normal rabbit, just hopped his fat butt up to the tray and took whatever he wanted, Slippers knew better to not mess with the largest of the brothers. He already learned his lesson. 

Lensha glanced at a clock on her wall, 8:10. 

Looks like she should probably get a move on unless she wants to be scolded for being late for work. She quickly threw a microwave omelet into to microwave and took a shower while it was heating up. When she was done showering she put on a brown shirt with white polka-dots on the shoulders and chest, a wired yet interesting black buckle things near the base of her short sleeves and a tan stripe running across her mid-section, and put on a pair of old jeans that flared out at the ends. She grabbed her breakfast said good-bye to her rabbits before going out, locking the door and hopping into her old school yellow punch-buggy. It was only a 10-15 minute drive to work depending on how bad traffic was, but since she lived in a less populated part of town traffic was rarely an issue, she just sucked when it came to being on time for things.

Gloris was already waiting for her when she arrived at the bakery, she was sitting on the railing kicking her feet absentmindedly. Wait, if Gloris was still outside ... that meant she wasn't late! She hopped out of her car with joy, she didn't have to here yet another lecture from her boss again, nothing can ruin this day now!

"Gloris!" she greeted from the side walk.

"Better late than never." Gloris chuckled under her breath as she got up to greet her long time friend "Hey buddy!" she waved. Gloris was a tall woman with natural strawberry blond hair and brown eyes. They had known each other ever since Lensha's 3rd year in high school, Gloris at that time was actually in her 5th year of high school (She failed a grade) and she's a couple years older than her but due to her somewhat hyperactive and immature nature most people tend to think Lensha is the oldest compared to the two of them.

"Hey-"

"Lensha!" a familiar shout cut her off. ' _Oh God..._ '

"Heeey, dad...". The pitiful greeting did not change the scowl on her father's face, his light brown eyes glared at her with a mixture of disappointment and anger. He walked over to the girls, arms crossed and his grey ponytail flowing behind him, his odd Asian garb flowing along with it.

"You're late," he started, Lensha's false smile turned into a frown "You've been slacking ever since your mother left, I wonder how she would feel about that?"

"Excuse me!? What is THAT suppose to mean!?" she shouted, taking a step forward with her fist clenched in anger "I'm only a few minutes late, so sue me! No one is even here yet!"

"That's no excuse for being late. It's just unfortunate that I can't fire you." he countered, his scowl unwavering and his tone matter-of-fact.

"Oh I'll give you a better reason to fire me!" she took another angry step forward before Gloris found it time to intervene.

"Alright ladies, break it up!" she step between the feuding family members, her arms out on either side in order to force more distance between the two. A pause of silence filled the space as Gloris awkwardly stood there with a determined look on her face, Omik seemed hesitant to continue the confrontation. 

"Fine," he finally spoke "I'm too old for this childish mess anyway." his arms finally uncrossed as she stomped into the bakery to prepare the establishment for business. Lensha's body relaxed as the anger and tension diminished, only sorrow was left. Lensha's mood was noticeably more solemn than usual and there was a good chance she would be like that for the rest of the day.

"You alright, Len?" Gloris questioned looking at her over to her right. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." Gloris didn't seem satisfied with that answer but she wasn't one to force words out of peoples mouths. She simply wrapped one of her lanky arms around her shoulders as a gesture of comfort and to nudge her towards the bakery. She really didn't want to go in but she had to pay the bills and feed her rabbits somehow."Today's going to be a long day..." she sighed.

"You say that everyday." Gloris chuckled.

"And I mean it everyday." she replied blankly as they went inside the bakery. 

Lensha was assigned waitress duty (or floor duty as Gloris called it) today, she didn't necessarily hate floor duty but she preferred to be in the back with Gloris making pastries or bread or even working the cash registers. But hey at least the uniforms were nice. She went in the back 'Employees Only' room, but instead of a room it was actually a hallway with a series of rooms attached. There was a storage room for ingredients and whatnot, a break room, an office, and a changing room, which was the place she was heading to. She went into the changing room and went over to her locker where her uniform was stored. Everyone who worked here for 6 months or longer was assigned a uniform and then they could do floor duty. The uniform consisted of a black skirt or pair of pants (depends on wearers preference ), a white button-up shirt with short puffy sleeves and a black clip-on tie. Very simple, very common, but it got the job done. She quickly got changed when she heard her father yell for her to "Stop goofing off and get out here!" and went out to do her job.

The day hadn't even started yet and she was already so tired.

\----

The day itself had been uneventful for the most part, sure she got her occasional kid who didn't know how to behave in public and the crazy entitled customer but when you work in business that's just par for the course. Her father left early leaving Lensha to clean up, which she honestly didn't mind doing. Sometimes, like on this night, Gloris would stay behind to help with the clean up and locking up of the place. 

Lensha cleaned the tables and counters, Gloris was sweeping the floor and the dishes had already been cleaned by the bus boy. They didn't do much talking, mainly because waitressing all day made Lensha exhausted. She was pretty much on auto-pilot as they cleaned, until Gloris broke the somewhat tense silence between them.

"Hey, are you alright." her voice was somber with a hint of concern.

"Hm?" 

"That fight with your dad..."

' _So that's where we're going..._ ' "I'm fine. You know how we are, its not exactly uncommon you know." she responded as she moved on the the last table, her back now facing Gloris.

"Yeah I know, but ... the way he talked to you ... what he said about your mother ... Len, that's not right." Lensha sighed.

"Just drop it Glory." Gloris's temper flared, her temper was pretty much like a flare. It just pops up whenever and it burns if you get too close but its resolves itself quickly.

"Why!? Its not right! I mean-"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore." Lensha could feel her staring at her back and a long silence broke out between them. Neither of them said anything while they finished cleaning up but the air was now more tense than before.

When they got done Lensha changed out of her uniform back into her normal clothes and double checked everything. She checked the stoves, the hidden safe in the office, made sure all the food was properly put away and finally checked the cash register to make sure everything was there. She would never think that her friend would steal, at least not anything other than excess pastries, but it made her feel better to check anyway. Once everything was set right they locked up for the day, but before Lensha could get back in her car and go to the homeless shelter where she volunteered Gloris spoke up once again. Rather suddenly too.

"Lensha ... if something was wrong would you tell me?" worry and anticipation filled her eyes as they stood in the entrance, Lensha thought over her answer.

"Probably not." she couldn't lie to her, she literally couldn't. Gloris forced herself not frown.

"Well, you know you can if you want to. I don't judge." she said and with that as if she knew Lensha wouldn't respond because of her bad mood she walked away with a small wave. Lensha let out a sigh when she got in her car and took some time to calm down a bit before she drove to the shelter.

Like the bakery the shelter wasn't to far of a drive to make. She parked in her usual parking spot on the side of the building in front of a sign that read 'Welcome to Snake Den Shelter. Disclaimer: we don't actually have snakes.'. No matter how many times she saw that sign it never failed to made her chuckle. After parking her car she got out and walked back around the building to the main entrance. Usually when she got there she was greeted by the staff and homeless alike, some friends some stranger who heard of her by word of mouth, but this time everyone seemed to be crowded around ... something. As she walked closer to the mass of people she couldn't see what they were crowded around but she could better hear some of the whispers and side conversations that were taking place.

"What do you think happened?"

"What's going on?"

"Did someone call the police?" 

 "Do you think he did something?"

"What is it?" were some of what she could make out. She looked around the place to see if she could find any familiar faces and sure enough she saw Rome standing far off from the group looking completely disinterested.

"Hey, Rome!" she called out he looked over in her direction, gave a weak wave and began walking over to her, she met him half way. Rome was a fairly small guy being around 5'6 or so and has an average build. He has brown eyes with a slight red tint to them and auburn colored hair, he was dressed in some slightly baggy jeans and a black T-shirt. 

"Yo, Lensha, what's up." he greeted with his hands in his pockets, his stature very relaxed. 

"Did something happen? What is everyone crowded around?" she said worryingly.

"Oh, that? Apparently Chec found some girl unconscious in the forest." he stated nonchalantly, her eyes went wide, due in part to worry for the girl and because Rome genuinely didn't seem to care. She began searching around for Chec and quickly found him on the very edge of the group talking to Vanessa, the owner of the shelter, who was more commonly referred to as Viper. She ran up to him, leaving Rome to continue not caring.

"Chec!" she called out, he looked over his shoulder and smiled when he realized who was calling him.

"Lensha, hel-"

"What happened!?" She didn't bother with a greeting, she was too worried. Chec seemed a little surprised about how straight forward she was being and it took him a couple seconds to actually reply. Chec himself was a large somewhat overweight black man with deep brown eyes, he often wore an old sweater that use to light cream but turned a strange greyish-cream color due age and just not being washed. He didn't have any hair but he did have a long black goatee with strands of grey hair in it. Lensha always found it odd that he was bald but had a goatee. 

"Uh, Well I went for a late afternoon walk through the forest like I normally do and she was just off the main path unconscious ." he replied simply.

"Did anyone call the police or something?" 

"Yeah, Nessa did." he pointed behind him with his thumb to the mentioned woman, she waved happily but her expression told a different story. She looked stressed out which was extremely uncharacteristic of her. She was nervously twisting her pure black hair and her vibrant green eyes darted around anxiously. Before she could ask what the matter was someone from the group yelled out,

"She's waking up!" Upon hearing that Viper's mood changed and she grabbed a bottle of water on a nearby lunchroom table and walked up to the crowd.

"Everyone backup, give her some space!" Viper commanded. Chec and Lensha followed her through as they made a path for her, no one dared mess with the muscle bound Colombian. At the center of the crowd was a white cot with a small and frail looking unconscious girl on it. She had long black hair and deep bags under her eyes. Her middle finger nail on both hands was painted black, and she was wearing an over sized purple shirt that made her look much smaller than she actually was. The crowd held their breath as the girl groaned and she slowly sat up clutching her head.

"Ma'am," Viper started, the girl opened her right dull grey eye when she spoke, she was visibly confounded "Are you okay?". The girl didn't reply, instead she looked at Viper sleepily for a moment, then took a glance around the crowd. When she realized that she was surrounded by people her eye wided and she began to look more frantic. Her increasing panic was not lessened by the foreign whispers of said people. She couldn't understand what they were saying. She didn't know where she was!

"D-dosa ... em...?" her breathing picked up as she began to look even more frantic. Viper attempted to touch her shoulder but when the girl saw her hand from the corner of her eye she slapped her hand away and began shouting "Dosere em kan!? Doso re sey!?". She backed up so far that she fell of the cot but she continued shouting "Shinka!" she gasped after her head hit the floor "Dosere seh yan! Shinka!? Shinka!".

"Oh shit. Does anyone here speak Meyengin!?" Viper shouted, some people shook theirs heads or said no while others backed away slowly. Viper turned to Lensha and Chec "Do either of y'all speak Meyengin?" they both shook their heads. Lensha may have lived in Kakiemeh for most of her life but she didn't know much of the language since a lot of the people on the mainland spoke english. Chec lived here his entire life but was raised by a family who only spoke english. Viper groaned and turned her focus back on the girl. She held her hands up as a sign that she was not a threat and bent down the ground without taking any steps towards her. "Hey, no, its okay. No one here is gonna hurt you, its fine. We just wanna help." she slowly waddled over to her, the girl's expression was unreadable but she appeared slightly calmer "Its okay, I'ma just - !" Viper reached her hand out to her only to be punched in the face. Most of the crowd scattered at the act of aggression while others moved to get the girl but Chec stepped in.

"Get back!" he ordered. Chec was a sweet guy but his size was quite intimidating. A dazed Viper stumbled off to the side and Lensha decided to make an attempt to calm her down. She crouched down but further away from her than Viper was in order to not cause anymore distress.

"U-umm, Seyer okay (You're okay)." the girls eyes appeared less panicked but she was still clearly afriad "Seyer okay ... do you ... um speak english?" the girl tilted her head to the side like a confused puppy, Lensha struggled to figure out what to say "Uhhh, oh! Englesho?". The girls eye widened not in panic but in familiarity, she opened her mouth to speak but the approaching police sirens scared her into silence. Lensha heard her shout something in Meyengin before she jumped to her feet and began searching for an exit. The moment her eyes landed on the glass doors of the front entrance she bolted through them and quickly disappeared into the night. 

"Hey, you! Stop! Police!" an officer shouted. Everyone went to the windows to watch the scene taking place. Two officers chased the girl down the street while two others entered the building.

"Is everyone alright!?" the only female officer shouted, everyone indicated that they were fine. 

After about 30 minutes of waiting and people being questioned by the two officers the other two officers came back sweaty and breathing hard.

"Are you two alright?" the non-sweaty male officer questioned.

"Were fine, damn that girl is fast." the oldest of the officers stated.

"We couldn't even get close to her." the female officer sighed.

"Ma'am is there nothing else you can tell us?" she question Viper.

"I already TOLD you EVERYTHING! I can't tell you anything else because I don't know anything else!" she shouted, clearly agitated.

"Vanessa." Chec placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down "I'm sorry, she's not too comfortable around police officers." the female officer looked at Viper suspiciously while Viper refused to make eye contact with any of the officers.

"... Okay then ..." she shifted her attention to Chec since he seemed more reasonable "Sir, do you think she was on drugs?"

"I don't think so."

"Do you think she was mentally unstable or disturbed?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know if she's armed?"

"I don't know." he answered honestly.

"Okay ... well we have all the information we could gather along with a sketch of the suspect, we'll be on the look out for her and we'll contact you if we need anything. Does that sound okay?" she attention moved back to Viper, she only growled in response. Chec nudged her arm.

"Yes ... that is fine." she responded stiffly.

"Uhm ... okay, we'll be in touch." with that all the officers left and the place gradually went back to normal although there was still some chatter and rumors were already starting to float about. Lensha saw Viper say something to Chec before she went into her office in the back of the shelter mumbling something along the lines of "Fuck the cops" Then Chec began to approach her.

"Viper said you can go home if you want, you look exhausted." she felt a little embarrassed that they noticed her exhaustion but she wasn't wrong.

"Yeah, I'll take you up on that offer." she yawned "I'll see you guys tomorrow." Chec pulled her into a hug, he tried to be as gentle as possible. When they broke away from each other Lensha waved goodbye and headed towards the doors. 

"Have a goodnight and drive safely." Lensha smiled.

"You have a goodnight too, sleep well."

Damn, she was tired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks you for reading! o/  
> I don't know what to rate this and I don't know what I am doing. Also,  
> WHY DID THIS TAKE ME 3 DAYS TO TYPE WTF!?


	2. Search Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chec being Chec gets worried about the girl's whereabouts and wants to find her before the cops do.  
> So who else to recruit other than Lensha and Rome?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took nearly 4 days to write wtf?  
> Anyway I hope you enjoy, sorry if this chapter may seem a bit weird compared to the last one. 
> 
> Who the fuck am I kidding they're all gonna be weird.
> 
> Words before chapter: a little over 4000
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [ My Tumblr (It is ass) ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/kodako-autumn%20)  
> [ My DA (it is also ass but slightly less ass?](http://kodako-autumn.deviantart.com/%20)

Lensha began and finished her morning routine a bit faster than usual. Last night had been ... weird but she felt oddly refreshed. She scratched Pumpa's and Tick's heads before she headed out the door, she didn't even bother with the demon.

She managed to avoid a lecture or an argument with her father since she arrived to work on time. Matter of fact Gloris showed up later than she did. She seemed surprised.

"Looks like i'm the early bird today, uh Glory?" Lensha teased, Gloris blinked in confusion.

"Yeah ... is there like a meeting and I didn't get the memo or something?" she looked slightly stressed about the thought of missing (another) meeting.

"Nope, I'm just here ... early." she smirked.

"Huh ..." was her only reply, she then proceeded to stare at the sky.

"Um, are you alright?" she questioned taking a step forward.

"Yeah, I'm just waiting for the sky to burn away as existence as we know it ceases..."

"Wha-" Gloris suddenly put Lensha into a firm yet gentle headlock and ruffled her hair.

"Cus' the world as we know it must be coming to an end if YOU manage to come to work early!" Lensha giggled uncontrobaly as Gloris play-punched her head before releasing her and grabing her shoulders firmly, her mood now serious "But no, seriously, is there a meeting or something? Do we have another special order!? Because so help me if I have to make 1000 pastries ever again I will LOSE MY-" Lensha grabbed her arm and pulled her further into the entrance in order to avoid the jugding eyes of passer-by's.

"I already told you, we don't have a meeting. We don't have any special orders, nothing like that."

"Promise?"

"Yeah. You really hate the special orders don't you." Lensha opened the door to head inside, it was too chilly to be standing outside having a conversation. It was almost always too chilly. Gloris followed her in.

"YES! God, they're fucking torture! Because of them everything I hear the word 'wedding' I internally cringe, man."

"Gloris language!" Omik shouted from behind the counter, startling the young women.

"But, no one is even here yet." she whined.

"That is true, but I don't want you to get in the habit of swearing around the customers. It won't look good on Raisin Sun if we just let our staff walk around talking like sailors." he retorted while he set up the ice cream machine.

"Good point." she sighed, Lensha giggled like a child watching their sibling get punished. 

Later, they were given their positions for the day, Lensha and Gloris would be the cash registers. Working the whole day in a position that isn't waitressing along side her bast friend? Maybe this day won't be as terrible as yesterday.

\---

It was around 1:00 and Omik was in the back office doing his own thing, Lensha couldn't help but to get a little irritated that he never worked around the bakery but at least it gave them the freedom to goof off a bit when business was slow. Just like today.

Out of boredom Gloris took an ice cream cone, stuck it to her forehead and began to make (very bad) horse noises.

"Breeeheheh, Im'a unicorn, breeheheh." Lensha giggled when she booped the side of her face with her 'horn' "I can make yo' dreams come true, man."

"Why do sound like a hippy from the 80's?" she chuckled. Gloris stared at her for a moment before suddenly dropping to the floor. In a moment of panic Lensha reached out to catch her until she realized what she was doing. She took a bendy straw she found in one of the counter cabinets put it in her mouth as is if was a pipe and sat cross legged with her eyes closed as if she was meditating.

"Breheheeeeeh, man. Save the trees, maaan." they both tried to hold back their laughter. Keyword: tried. After a few moments they both erupted with laughter, tears already in their eyes. Gloris was holding her stomach still sitting on the floor and Lensha was laughing so hard that she had to use the counter for support. Gloris's random antics never failed to make any moment interesting. Their laughter was short lived however when they heard a door open. "Oh shit, Omik!" Gloris whispered in a slight panic as she scrambled to get off the floor. She took the staw out of her mouth and the cone off her head and threw haphazardly under the counter right as the door to the 'Employees Only' hall opened just enough for Omik to stick his head through the crack.

"The hell are you two doin'?" he said eyeing them both suspiciously.

"Nothing." they both said in unison standing unnaturally stiff. He didn't say anything more, he just stared them down before slowly creeping back into the hall. They still held their breath as they listened closely, he hadn't moved from his spot from behind the door, he was still listening himself. When they heard his footsteps go back to the office they finally relaxed.

"I hate your dad, Len." Gloris's voice was muffled by the counter top that she face planted onto.

"You and me both."

\----

Omik decided to close up early since business was practically nonexistent. Once again he had left Lensha to clean and lock up the place and this time Gloris couldn't stay to help. 

"Sorry I can't stay Len!" she shouted from the back hall.

"Its fine, I've cleaned this place up plenty of times before, this isn't gonna be any different." she dug through the janitors closet that was next to the bathroom "What do you have going on tonight anyway?"

"Gonna go visit my aunt, her ol' cat died and she could use some cheering up." she came out of the back all with a container full of leftover doughnuts and a bag of bread. "Are you sure you don't need me to stay?" she set down her stuff to help Lensha grab a bottle of cleaning spray from the top shelf and handed it to her.

"Thanks. And I told you i'm fine, go visit your aunt, I got this." she grabbed the mop and did a heroic pose, Gloris snorted.

"Alright mop boss, have a goodnight and be careful getting home!"

"You to, see ya tomorrow." Gloris gave a thumbs up  and flipped the OPEN, CLOSED sign to closed as she went out the door, free food in hand. 

It felt empty now.

She used to be terrified of locking up before. This part of Jadea wasn't always so peaceful. It used to be filled to the brim with gang violence, sporadic riots, corruption and a hell of a lot of poverty. The bakery was just starting out and crime was as common as air at that point in time, even though there was a rule that at least two people had to stay after to lock up it didn't make things less scary. So to lessen the fear Gloris and Lensha's mother brought in a couple of guns for protection. Gloris brought in a pistol her father once used before he moved away and her mother brought in a refurbished riffle and damn those guns had come in handy on more than one occasion. She never shot either of them but she's heard of other employees having to shoot wannabe robbers.

How the times have changed.

She was staring out the window reminiscing of past when the bell that hung over the door rung, signifying that someone was entering the building. Lensha internally groaned, _'can people not read?!'_

"Sorry," she began to turn around to face the obviously illiterate person "but we ar- oh, hey Chec!" she greeted cheerfully and feeling bad for mistakenly calling Chec illiterate; even though he didn't know that.

"Hello, Lensha." he was just barely halfway inside  "I'm assuming by your volume that your father isn't here?" Lensha nodded.

"Yeah, c'mon in." he hesitantly walked inside after scanning the place for himself. Her father didn't like it when homeless people came around the bakery, even if they were just walking by he would glare at them through the large glass windows until he couldn't see them anymore. But out of all the homeless he probably hated Chec the most. 

"Heh, this place brings back memories." he laughed dryly.

Heheh, y-yeah." she falsely chuckled in order to lessen the tension radiating off of him "is there anything you need? Because I know you wouldn't drop by here just for a visit." she finished wiping down the tables and moved on to the counters.

"No, i'm fine. I just wanted to ask if you've seen that girl?" he walked over to the broom and pointed at it "Also I could help you out if you want?"

She glanced up at him then shrugged "Sure, knock yourself out. And I haven't seen her, the cops haven't found her yet?"

"Nope, they're still looking. I'm pretty sure they think she's a drug user or something." he signed as he began sweeping the floor.

"Why do you say that?"

"They made a news report about it, they had her sketch up saying that 'she was armed and likely had gang affiliations'." he used his fingers as quotations and talked in the best high pitch voice he could conjure up when he referred to the news report.

"What?" she looked up flabbergasted "But you said that you _didn't know_ if she was armed or not and they didn't even ASK if we thought she was in a gang! They're just making assumptions now!" now she was beginning to understand why Viper hated cops so much.

"Exactly." he said simply as he looked around for a dust pan, she pointed at the janitors closet.

"That's just crooked." she mumbled under her breath.

"I want to find her." he said with is head shoved into the closet.

"What?"

"I want to find her before they do." he repeated "Lensha, you know how hard they are on people nowadays. Even if they THINK your'e in a gang you're going to be arrested, no matter how young or how old you are. And how old was that girl? 15, 16 years old? She could spend up to 40 years in PRISON for something she may not even be a part of." Chec spoke passionately.

"Well, then the courts-"

"Will find her guilty just because _she looks_ like she could be in a gang. You know how biased the courts can be, you've read about all those cases where innocent people were sent to their DEATHS!" he glared angrily at the floor, he was getting scary now.

"Okay," she took a deep breath "so let's just say we DO go out and look for her. What if she's actually in a gang, Chec? What then?" she leaned on her shoulder awaiting his answer.

"She's not." she raised a brow.

"How do you know?"

"Members of a gang would tattoo their gang's symbol  or emblem on their bodies. Or wear it on their clothes and she didn't have one."

"Maybe it was under her clothes."

"I highly doubt that. Gang members get their tattoos of their gang's symbol somewhere where it is clearly visible as a demonstration of pride and to show that they are not afraid if rivals."

' _That actually made sense_ '. She looked out the window and sighed, she knew him well enough to know that once he was set on doing something he became bullheaded "There's still some light left. Let's go look." Chec gave her a smile, seeing him smile made her feel a bit better about her reluctant decision.

Chec swiftly finished sweeping and went towards the door "Met me at the shelter when your done, okay?" she gave him the 'O.K' hand signal while she counted the money in the register, he nodded before he went out the door and walked faster than usual to the shelter.

Chec was determined to find this girl and make sure this corrupted legal system didn't get their grimy hands on her and ruin her life. He's seen it happen too many times, hell he nearly had it happen to him. Even though it was only one child, it was one child less that would have their life destroyed by power hungry and disconnected authority figures.

When he got to the shelter he managed to get inside undetected since it was almost dinner time and the place was crowded. He didn't want anyone to strike up a conversation with him or any other distractions, he just wanted to get Rome and possibly Viper and go. Although seeing how busy this place was right now he doubted that she would be able to come along. 

After a bit of searching around he found Rome sitting at a cafeteria table by himself eating an apple.

"Rome!" he called out, he turned is head but made no attempt to get up so Chec met him at his spot instead, "Are you doing anything?"

"Does it look like m' doin' anythin'?" he replied with a brow raised. Chec gave him a stern look which knocked the sass right out of him "Nah man, I'm not doin' nothin'." he shrunk in on himself and Chec didn't have the time or the patience to correct his english.

"Do you want to come with Lensha and I to look for the girl?" he asked.

"You weren't kiddin' when you said you wanted to look for her were you...?" he sighed. He then tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling as if he was thinking over his answer "Did you actually go to Raisin Sun and asked Lensha to come along?"

"Yes."

"Wha'd she say."

"She said she would help." Rome gave him a strange look before he suddenly got up and began walking towards the door. 

"Alright, c'mon big fella."

"I'll be out there in a second, just wait for me." Rome didn't respond, he just kept on walking, throwing away his apple core before going out the door. Chec would never understand that kid.

Lensha was already walking up to the door when Rome got outside.

"Oh, hey. Where's Chec?" she asked shoving her keys back in her pockets.

"He's still inside, he'll be out in a sec."

"Okay..." an awkward silence broke out between them, or rather floated around Lensha since Rome didn't seem to notice her awkwardness. She hadn't known Rome long, only a couple of months. Matter of fact the only reason she even knows him is because of Chec. She didn't like to talk to him that much, his never ending snarky and apathetic attitude made him difficult to talk to at times. But she would like to become friends with the guy, other than his occasional annoying attitude he seemed like a chill dude."So, uh, you're coming along?" she spoke in an attempt to shake off her unnecessary awkwardness.

"Yeah but only because you're going." he admitted, her face scrunched up.

"Eh...?" he turned to look at her and saw her expression mixed with horror and disgust, if he didn't feel awkward then he sure did now.

"What? Why're you lookin' at me like that?" she didn't respond, her expression remained unchanged. "Listen, the reason I said that is because-"

"Hey" a male voice from behind him spoke. Reflexively he immediately turned around and punched the man in the shadows only to be stopped by hi large hand, still in fight mode he pulled back his other arm preparing to attempt to strike him again but the man spoke up, "Rome, its me, relax." the man stepped out of the shadows and he instinctively stepped back when he realized that it was only Chec.

"W-where in the fuck did you come from!?" he shouted between rapid breaths, he was clutching his so hard that it felt like her would break his own rib. 

"Oh, I went to Viper's office to ask if she wanted to tag along, obviously she said no. I took the back door out and made my way back around the building." he explained. Lensha walked up to them, being sure to stay off to the side so not to startle him again (even though she was pretty sure he would hear her walking up anyway).

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, m' fine." after a few deep breaths he seemed to compose himself "So, which way are we going to go? He spoke as if nothing happened.

"Well she ran off down the street so maybe we should head off in that direction." he pointed in said direction.

"Alright." she agreed.

"Sounds good to me." Rome added.

\----

They had been searing for about an hour now. The moon was in full display as they checked alleyways and spoke to roaming night owls. But alas they weren't any closer to finding her.

"Hey, Chec." Rome playfully pushed against Chec with his entire body but his sturdy frame did not waver.

"Yeah?"

"Im'a get you back for that, ya know." he smirked, Chec looked down at him complete bewilderment.

"What? Why, its not like I did it on purpose." he chuckled. Lensha saw this as the opportune moment to maybe get to know him better and to get back at him from the times he's sassed her.

"Maybe he'she just mad because you scared him~?" she taunted. They both looked back as her as they continued walking, Chec had an amused smile on his face while the victim looked quite vengeful.

"He ain't scare me! Jus' put me on edge." he claimed as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Aw really~? Not even a little~?"

"NOPE!" he shouted. He then proceeded to speed walk ahead of them, leaving the two bullies in his dust, giggling like school children. He was so irritated at this point that he didn't even bother to check the alley he just passed by.

"Hey, you just skipped one!" the shorter of the instigators pointed out.

"Yeah, does it look like I give a shit!?" she shouted back without bothering to face her.

Everyone froze in their step when a loud crash came from the skipped alleyway. Suddenly, Rome gave a shit. He hopped backwards and peered into the dark alley. 

"Rome be careful!" Chec warned as the stragglers picked up their pace to catch up.

He wasn't listening, he toned out Chec before he even opened his mouth to better hear the odd rumbling coming from the darkness. ' _It's not a machine,_ ' he thought to himself _'It sounds almost like a bear or something',_ he took a step closer and his body filled with tension as it screamed at him to get away. His muscles where stiff and his mind was racing along with his heart, but curiosity trumps instinct. He jumped back when another louder crash was heard and Chec moved in front of Lensha without him realizing when they eventually caught up. Undeterred Rome took a couple more steps forward, his left foot now fully in the alleyway, before Chec could reprimand him for being an idiot a series of crashes came one after another closely followed by a startled cat dashing past Rome and across the street. 

"Really ... a fucking ca- oh shit!" a black figure bolted from the shadows into the street. It was more than halfway across the street when it unexpectedly turned around and began charging at Rome. Upon its return he saw that the mysterious figure was a viscous looking dog, barking and snarling as it charged full speed right at him.

He wasn't having any of it.

"FUCK NO! Get away!" he ran down the block in the direction he was heading before but the dog was on his heels. Literally, it actually nipped his heels. He managed to evade it by running around a mailbox and ran back towards Chec and Lensha. Was he crying? "Chec get it away from me! Get it the FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!" his voice cracked as the dog nipped his heel again. Chec walked toward as the frightened 'tough guy' ran passed him and hid behind Lensha; he would have time to laugh about that later. He began lifting his arms in order to make his already imposing frame look even bigger but the dog skidded to a stop before he could lift them all the way. The dog just panted as it stood there and stared at him, its tail a black and light grey blur.

What now? Was it over?

The dog barked loudly making everyone jump and sending an echo though the air. The dog itself was slightly smaller than a Great Dane, it was mostly black with its eyebrows, chin, right paw, chest and stomach and tail tip being colored light grey while its back had a darker shade of black running along its back to its rear and colored two eye-like dots on its chest. A long scare ran between its ghostly yellow eyes, it pupils instead of being black like most dogs was a darker yellow. It was honestly a beautiful dog, if not a bit loud.

"Uhm ... what do I do?" he turned to Lensha who had been standing idly watching the scene play out, she honestly found it hilarious. So funny in fact the she merely responded with a snicker when she walked past him towards the dog, who had since rolled over on its back still wagging its tail. "Lensha wait!" he reached out to grab her but she pulled away before he could grab her.

"It's fine, just watch." she smiled reassuringly, but he was still wary. She slowly and calmly went up to the dog and crouched down a few feet away from it. Its tail slowed for just a moment as it searched her for any sign that she was a threat. Apparently it deemed her safe because then it scrambled onto its feet and trotted over to her happily sitting inches away from her face. Its breath smelled awful as it promptly sniffed her face but she didn't have to deal with it for long since it headbutted her chest as a demand to be petted, she complied and began scratching its face. "See, she's friendly.". Chec stared at them in bewilderment. Was this the same dog who was chasing and snarling as Rome? THIS DOG who was now sitting there like nothing happened as he friend scratched her joyfully...? He slowly began to walk over cautiously with Rome clinging to the back of her sweater in fear. He squatted down as best he could with said baggage on his back and Lensha grabbed his hand and put it in front of its face. It sniffed his hand for a few seconds then head butted it, its demand for pets remaining strong.

"So it actually does appear to be friendly ..." he spoke slowly almost as if he was in a trance. 

"Then what the hell was all that shit!" Rome shouted from behind him, his volume not distracting hypnotized man in the slightest.

"I think she was just excited. With how calm friendly she seems she must like people." she reached out to scratch the other side of its face much to the dog's delight.

"Friendly my ass..." he grumbled under his breath "Wait, how do you know its a she anyways?" he pointed at the blissful canine.

"Well when she was on her back she didn't leave much to the imagination." she shrugged with a crooked smile.

After a few minutes of petting the entranced affection givers legs were getting sore so they were finally forced to stand up. 

"What time is it?" Rome in a bitter tone. Lensha took out her phone and checked.

"It's 10:45."

"Then we should be getting back, our curfew is at 11:00." Chec said dishearteningly. Without saying another word Rome began angrily walking back to the shelter.

"Wait, what are we going to do with her?" Chec asked.

"Leave it." the disgruntled dog hater offered, crossing his arms

"No, we can't leave it here! Just look at it." 

"Yeah, Rome," Lensha jumped in "look at the precious face~!" she hugged her face as the dog continued to wag its tail and stare up at Rome.

"...Leave it to die." 

"We should take it with us back to the shelter." Chec offered after a moment of silence.

"NO."

"Why not?"

"Viper wouldn't allow us to have this ... thing at the shelter."

"She let Crazy Doug have a rat in a shoe box."

"So! That was a rat!" he threw his arms in the air then motioned to the dog "this is a giant abomination." Lensha gasped dramatically and covered its ears, he glanced over at her but opted to ignored her. "Besides what if it has an owner?"

"Then it would have a collar, and I haven't seen any missing posters of this dog." Chec seemed determined to keep this dog for some reason.

"Well it could be microchiped." Lensha offered without thinking.

"True." Chec was deep in thought for a moment "Veterinarians have a device to check it if has one, correct?"

"Yeah. There's a free on-the-road clinic coming to town in a couple of weeks, I could take her when I take my bunnies to get neutered." 

"Why can't you just go to one tomarrow!?" Rome squinted at her.

"Its free to go to the on-the-road clinic, that and the nearest vet is really far from here." 

"Okay, so its settled." Chec jumped in "We'll keep her until we found out if she's owned or not. If she isn't we'll keep her, if she is we'll take the proper steps to finding her owner." Chec ginned.

"Sounds good to me" she smiled.

"YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS."

"Yes, we are." they both turned to him and said in unison, their faces showing just how serious they really were. 

Out matched Rome no longer argued as they went back to the shelter, said their goodbyes then went their separate ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you enjoyed. o/


	3. Look at What We Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lensha, Chec, Gloris, the rabbit bros. and Mystic go to the Vet on Wheels.  
> But Mystic starts acting strange. 
> 
> Edited 11/28/16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know how to start or end this chapter.  
> Honestly I don't even know what the hell I was even doing in the chapter.  
> Then again I don't know what the hell I'm doing in an of the chapters
> 
>  
> 
> [ My Tumblr (It is ass) ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/kodako-autumn%20)  
> [ My DA (it is also ass but slightly less ass?](http://kodako-autumn.deviantart.com/%20)

"You guys found a dog!? And you took it home!?" Gloris paused her bread making to squeal after hearing about the gang's endeavor.

"Yeah, but I didn't take it home, Rome and Chec took her back to the shelter until I could take it to that Vet on Wheels thing which I plan on doing today. And keep your voice down, Omik is just down the hall." Lensha warned as she rolled some donuts.

"Yeah, yeah." she rolled her eyes as she continued to roll out the dough. 

It had been two weeks since they went out looking looking for the girl only to find the dog instead, Rome still despised her while Chec and Lensha absolutely adored her, but it did seem than he was starting to warm up to her.

"Maybe I outta go to the shelter with ya' to see this precious wittle thing that you and Chec seem to love so much~." the bondie teased. "Besides I haven't seen Chec in awhile and this Rome guy sounds like a riot." she smiled devilishly, Lensha gave her a crooked smirk.

"Yeah, I think Chec would like that. And in regard to Mystic, she isn't a 'wittle thing' she's pretty large actually." she used her hands to try to show how big she was, her back went past the 5'6 woman's knees "And Rome ... he isn't a riot, trust me." she had finished roiling the doughnuts and put them in the oven.

Lensha and Gloris had stayed in the baking room the whole day making doughnuts and bread while 2 other employees made and decorated cakes and cupcakes. It had been such a long time since Lensha spent an entire work day in the baking room, she enjoyed baking ever since her mother first taught her too. It actually makes her feel closer to her as crazy as that sounds. And after these past few months she really needed that.

The day had gone on without a hitch and once again there was no sign of Omik, looks like she's gonna have to lock up again. Even though there were still a few employees around she still felt like she had an obligation to lock up. Gloris was also mildly disappointed, she wanted to see Chec and the dog as soon as possible and since she didn't have a car she would have to ride with Lensha instead and it only made sense to help the person who is giving you a ride, right? Before they could grab any supplies however, Omik came through the door and told the two women to leave and that he and the lingering employees would lock up the place. Gloris didn't needed to be told twice, she grabbed her escort and left without another thought.

Gloris practically flung herself into the car while Lensha sat in the car shock for a few seconds. _'Omik. Is actually going to lock up the place? Omik? Her father? Had she died and gone to heaven?'._ Gloris with a goofy smile on her face nudged her bringing her back to reality.

"You're really surprised aren't ya'?" she smirked, Lensha nodded uncertainly.

"Well, yeah. It's rare that Omik volunteers to clean up, so rare actually that I am actually a little suspicious..." she squinted as she leaned forward to look past her passenger into the bakery. 

"Dude, suspicious of what?" Gloris looked into the bakery as well "Look at em' they're just cleaning and talking! Nothings wrong! So let's go, come on, I wanna see the puppy!" she bounced in her seat like an impatient child, Lensha chocked back a laugh at the childish behavior.

"Alright, alright but I gotta swing by my place to get the brothers first. I'm gonna take them over to the Vet on Wheels so they can get neutered." she started her car up and Gloris pressed her head against the head rest and groaned dramatically.

"Hey did you know that in some places, including the Rural's they EAT animal testicles!" she shouted suddenly after a few moments of silence. By Lensha's gag and the silence that followed afterwards she was 100% sure that she in fact did not know that.

At the shelter Chec waited anxiously with Mystic by the glass doors for Lensha. He really hoped that she wasn't microchipped or owned by anyone. Sure, she may be a tad bit hyperactive and her large size scared some of the children and made it difficult to navigate the crowded cot room, which was the room where everyone slept and where she stayed most of the time. But her positives more than outweighed the negatives. She was a complete snuggle buddy, gentle around the children (if they weren't frightened of her), she had become somewhat of a comfort dog to the elderly and Chec, she was obedient, clever, and even protective of her guardians.

For example a few days ago Rome was going to go out a couple hours before curfew and he had suggested that he take Mystic with him. Rome of course refused out-right, he expected this so he gave him some incentive. Rome had a notorious addiction for Apple Pucks (a combination of an apple pie and a crumpet that is about the size of your palm) and if just so happened that Chec not only saved his from dinner but also manged to get two more from two other people. Upon learning that it didn't take much else for him to take the dog out with him without anymore bickering. Chec understood that the fiery red head wasn't too fond of dogs but he saw this as an opportune for him to maybe become a little less skittish around dogs or at least around Mystic just in case they could keep her. When they came back Mystic had blood on her face and Rome had a black eye and a few cuts and bruises. When he asked what happened he gave a very vague answer saying that "a few ol' pals bumped into me on the sidewalk, things got heated, mud was flung and one my dear ol' pals decked me in the face. That's when the mutt lost her shit and started biting the fuck outta everyone sending them screaming like a bunch of banshees in labor. Man, it was so funny!". Despite the fight Chec could tell that Rome had gotten closer to Mystic, evident by him calling her 'mutt' instead of 'that thing' or 'that demon'.

Chec was still worried about Rome but it wasn't uncommon for him to get into fights with people. Whether its because they're someone from his past or because he just wants to be a hard ass fights were somewhat frequent with him and no matter how much he would try and discourage his violent tenancies he would probably keep fighting. Such is the way of the streets.

Chec couldn't be mad at him though, he had been on these streets and many others before Rome was even out of middle school. He knew that sometimes you end up running with the wrong crowd. He knew that you may do things that you may or may not want to do. He knew what it was like out there. Fight or be a victim, steal or be stolen from,  kill or die. He knew the cycle's, the consequences, the rules, the sights, the sounds, hell even the smells of these damn streets! He knew so much that it kept him awake at night, fearing and waiting for the next attack, the next drive-by shooting, the next riot. He knew that everything was fine, that he had escaped the corruption of the streets, but his mind told him that he could never escape. He knew he could never truly escape.

He could only live in a fantasy. 

He leaned his head against the wall, his newfound companion sensing his inner turmoil pressed herself closer to his leg as he absentmindedly rubbed her one folded ear. He really wanted her to stay, in just two weeks she had become a close confidant of his and a mascot of sorts for the shelter. Most of the children had gotten use to her presence and Viper was gradually allowing her to walk about more of the shelter, except for the kitchen of course, that was 100% off limits no matter what.

Out of the corner of his eye her saw Lensha's car go past the shelter towards the parking lot on the side of the building. He forced himself to shake away the negative thoughts and sat of a bit straighter despite his constant lower back pain. After a few seconds he decided that he didn't want to deal with it so he stood up instead lessening his pain and causing Mystic to look more lively. A couple minutes later the door opened but instead of Lensha calmly walking through them another familiar face busted through them instead.

"Ceeeech! Where you be, dude!" Gloris shouted causing a few people to stare at her, some out of curiosity others out of less pure reasons. She was carrying a pet carrier.

"Glory be careful! You got the demon in that carrier and I don't want him pissed off when I get back home!" she scolded her. She had no idea why she insisted on carrying Slippers, she wasn't going to complain about it but just ... why?

"Gloris!" he said joyfully with his arms extended for a bear hug, even though he wasn't trying to be be loud he sounded like he was shouting anyway. Gloris happily excepted the hug and wrapped her free arm around his back as best she could. Normally his famous bear hugs would nearly crush most people, even if his was applying half the pressure he normally would they would tap out after a few seconds. Gloris on the other hand could handle the full amount of pressure even daring him to squeeze her harder, he's known some people to use his bear hugs as a sort of challenge but this girl didn't seem to have any limits. Ever since he first met her they've made it a tradition or sorts for him to squeeze her as tightly as he could, it was almost like a friendly rivalry at this point.

"How've you been, dude? Haven't seen you in forever since you never stop by the bakery anymore." she said pulling back for the hug being completely unaffected by the crushing force that was applied to her, Chec forced himself not to look uncomfortable at the mention of the bakery.

"I've been well. What about you?" she gave him an odd look before responding. 

"I've been good, doing the same ol' same ol' but its paying the bills and it ain't killing me so whatever." she shrugged, Mystic barked beside him. As if she just noticed the large dog she gasped nearly dropping the carrier and giving Lensha a heart attack "Is this the dog I've been hearing so much about!" she squealed, she looked between Chec and Lensha who both nodded. Unable to control herself she put down the carrier and went over to the dog, she tried to make sure she smelled her hand before she would shower her with affection but Mystic being just as impatient as she was skipped sniffing her hand all together and proceeded to tackle her and attack her face with doggy kisses. Gloris giggled and squirmed beneath her. During this Chec noticed that Lensha was having a hard time holding one of the carriers, he waked past the wrestling duo up to her.

"Do want me to carry that?" he asked extending his hand.

"Yeah, thanks." she handed him the carrier "I didn't think it was possible for him to get any fatter.". Out of curiosity he lifted the carrier with ease and peered inside, he couldn't see much but a reddish ball of fluff spotted with light brown and grey. He then took a glance at all the carriers. This was the first time he ever met her rabbits, actually it was the first time he was ever this close to one, better yet three.

"Which rabbit is which?" he asked pointed at the carriers at random.

"Oh, the one I have is Pumpa, he's the middle child and the sweet heart. You have Tick, he's the oldest and the lazy bum. The one on the floor is Slippers, he's the youngest obviously and the reincarnation of the devil." she glared at the aforementioned's carrier as he thumped about inside.

"Ohh, so this is the one that you complain so much about." he walked around to the door of the carrier and squatted down to look inside, he was met with 2 scarlet eyes staring back at him. "Well he has the eyes of a demon." he looked uncomfortable "If you dislike him so much why don't you take him to an animal shelter or sell him?" he looked up and the owner of the brother's.

"Because he likes my brother and once he gets done with college he plans on taking care of him as his own." she shrugged "Also no one in the world would buy that tasmanian devil." she forced a smile, Chec was still hung up on the fact that she had a brother. Before he could ask about him Gloris managed to escape Mystic's affection assault.

"I'm free!" she gasped as she got up off the floor, dog slobber was all over her face and her tank-top was damp and Mystic's tail was wagging at the speed of light. "Y'all wanna get goin'?" she pointed at the doors.

"Yeah." she looked around then looked up at Chec "Is Rome not coming?"

"No, he said he didn't want to go." Lensha shrugged, at least she would only have to deal with one demon for the day.

Gloris picked up Slippers before they went out the door and down the street in the opposite direction they went to look for the girl, Mystic obediently followed. There was still plenty of light out since they left the bakery earlier than usual. It would take about 15 minutes to get to the biggest Plaza in Jadea, the Central Plaza. Plaza's in themselves are like round-a-bouts but they're only for people who are not in a motor vehicles. They have small apartments and homes that encircle the Plaza called coji's, small stores and shop and sometimes there may even be a resturant, for thoes who were a bit low on money or liked small homes a Plaza was a perfect place to live. Plaza's, mainly the larger ones, are sometimes used to host events but on a normal days they are used for mobile food vendors and vendor stalls. In the center of the Plaza's there is usually a decoration, a sculptor, a fountain, or a piece of art. Whatever it maybe it is used not only as a piece of decoration but also as a way to know where you're going since every center piece has some sort of indicator to tell the reader which way was which. In their case they were going far north into a small colvasac where the Vet on Wheels would have a series of small stations set up for various operations. 

Of course almost immediately Gloris got distracted by the new sights, smells and sounds and the two more responsible members of the group nearly lost her in the hustle and bustle of the crowd. 

"Gloris, c'mon. We don't have time for this." Lensha sighed.

"But look at all the shiny stuff, Len!" she whined dramatically.

"Its nice to know that you haven't changed in the slightest, Gloris." Chec chuckled mainly to himself.

No one in the group had ever been to the Central Plaza, Lensha didn't even know where it was until she looked it up on the internet so the sound of people piece and the large stone welcoming signs on either side of the entrance indicating that they had arrive filled them with excitement. The Plaza was surprisingly busy despite it being late in the day. There were people walking about with homemade bags filled with home made goods. The wonderful aroma of foreign foods wafted around them, even Mystic was drooling at the enticing scents. There were street performers playing instruments neither Lensha or Gloris had ever seen before and there were stall vendors off to the sides selling all kinds of items and knickknacks such as jewelry, traditional Kakimenian clothing, native herbs and spices and countless other things. There were 20th century lanterns hanging from poles and from buildings giving the Plaza a soft yellow-orange tint perfectly complementing the red bricks on the ground and the dark oak wood buildings.

 Lensha practically had to drag her friend through the crowds and past market vendors. However not even she was not immune to the enticement of the Plaza, or more specifically the food that was there. At least 3 times Chec had to be the one to pull Lensha away from food vendors but being someone how also like to eat, sometimes a little too much, he couldn't be mad. Matter of fact it was one of the many reasons why he and Lensha became friends so easily. They both love to eat, as evident by how exhausted they were getting on a effortless stroll for most people. Even though Chec was naturally a large person ever since he was a child but when he started going to the shelter he had actually gained a few pounds and Lensha had always been a bit plump but he noticed that she had also gained a bit of weight. He was somewhat concerned for her health but how exactly do you say "Hey, I noticed that you're getting fat." in a kind way?

Chec's worries about Lensha were replaced with worries about Mystic when he saw up ahead a white van with the words 'Vet on the Road' painted in green letters painted on the side. He almost wanted to just refuse to let her be checked out by the vet but not only would it be immature it could also mean that she would be missing out on medical care that she could possibly need right now; even though she seemed perfectly healthy he still didn't want to take that chance. At least the place wasn't as crowded as the main part of the Plaza so he'll get the results faster so he won't have a lot of time to worry incessantly.

The only one who seemed to know where to go was Lensha so they just followed her while she held onto Gloris's wrist to keep her from going off and petting random animals. She walked up to a man who was sitting a plastic table with pamphlets and a donation box on it. 

"Hello! Welcome to Vet on the Road, how may I help you all today." he greeted joyfully.

"Hi, I have three rabbits I want to get neutered." she motioned to all the carriers then pointed to Mystic "And we'd like to know if this dog has a micro chip." 

"Okay then." the man dug in a clear plastic bin beside him and pulled out two clipboards "If you could just fill these out for me. There are seats right behind you." he smiled genuinely as Lensha took one clipboard and Chec took the other. The animal guardians sat down and began filling out the general information on the boards, it was common stuff like, allergies, injuries, medication, behavior, daily routine, etc. while Gloris went over to random animals and petted and payed with them; with the owners permission of course. The two seated visitors couldn't help but to notice that the usually happy and spunky Mystic as uncharacteristically skittish and distressed, Chec was petting her with his right hand in an attempt to ease her distress but it didn't seem to help.

"What's wrong with her?" Lensha asked looking from her clipboard to watch as Mystic had her nose pointed towards the sky sniffing the air.

"I have no idea. I've never seen her like this." he took a moment to think of some possible reasons to her sudden shift in behavior "Maybe its all the other animals?" he offered. Lensha shrugged she was no animal behaviorist and neither was he. The only thing they could do was fill out the paper work and comfort her as best they could even though their efforts did very little.

After they had finished they went back to the man at the table and they were told to go to specific stations to get Mystic check and the brothers neutered, there they would hand over the paperwork while the man took the clipboards and put them in a different clear plastic container. Since Gloris was nowhere to be seen Chec helped bring over Tick and Slippers to Station #10, Lensha thanked him and he went two stations over.

"Why hello there!" the woman greeted in a heavy southern accent.

"Hello." Lensha returned the greeting while handing the woman over her paper work and she quickly read it over.

"Oh! So we got 3 bunny siblings about are to get their pendulums chopped off, huh?" she said enthusiastically, Lensha smiled and nodded "Okay, Ms. ... A ... dick?" she squinted at her last name on the paper.

"Eye-Dock." she corrected, the woman blushed at the embarrassing blunder.

"Aidok, yes, my apology's. Lemme get another pair of hands in here to help me out and we should be finished in about 15 to 20 minutes!" she bounced back from her mistake.

"Thank you." she replied with a small grin before the friendly woman went off to find some assistance. While she did that she pet each of her rabbits good-bye; even the demon, he was too tired to make a fuss anyway. It wasn't like they were being put down or anything but she still felt uneasy about her babies having surgery, even it if is a routine as getting neutered. She was doing this whole thing mainly for Slippers anyway since from what Gloris told her from her time when she lived on a farm that her family would routinely neuter horses so that they would be better fit for riding, so the same logic would apply to rabbits, right? Besides if one bro. had to get her clackers removed why not the rest of them. She stayed the longest with Pumpa who pressed his tinny head into her hand as she pet him, she then went back to the waiting area.

Meanwhile at Station #12 Chec was beginning to regret coming here in the first place. He was so afraid that she would be microchipped that it could have killed him. He was sweaty, the joints in his hands hurt from gripping the papers so hard and his lower back was starting to irritate him, Mystic's escalating odd behavior wasn't making things any better either. She began to walk in circles and began sporadically howling and barking. She'd been acting odd ever since they crossed 53rd street but it was practically unnoticeable before. Luckily for them both the kind veterinarian eased their nerves somewhat.

"Hello sir." she started with a shy smile "May I have your paperwork please?" she extended her hand towards him. He forced himself to release his sweaty death grip and handed the now wrinkled papers to her. She smoothed them out before thoroughly looking through them "Where did you find this beautiful creature if you don't mind my asking." she bent down to let Mystic smell her hand, unlike last time she actually smelled her hand before headbutting it demanding pets like she always did, the vet gave into her adorable demands.

"We were, uh, out and we found her on the streets. Or more like she found us, it's a long story really." no it wasn't, he just didn't want to explain it.

"Okay, that's no problem." she stopped petting her and went over to a green plastic bin and dug through it. After a bit of digging she pulled out a small grey device and bent back down to her.

"Do you need me to hold or anything?" he felt weird standing there doing nothing.

"No, she's friendly and calm enough that I won't need your assistance but thank you." she smiled up at him, gently stroking Mystic's back. She held the device a few inches above her fur in between her shoulders and paused. After a few seconds the device made a short high-pitched beep making his heart nearly jump out of his chest, not with fear but with dread. "She doesn't have a microchip, sir." as if she sensed his disbelief she turned the device towards him so her could read the blinking words that read 'NO CHIP FOUND'. He was so happy that he could dance, but he was too old for that mess. 

She check her out for injuries, mange, and ticks. She said that she had dry skin and slightly underweight but other than that she was healthy to Chec's surprise.

"Thank you ma'am, have a nice night." he waved to her and he went off to the waiting area.

"You're welcome and you too." she waved back.

As he was going back to the waiting area he spotted Lensha in the first row and sat next to her, with a big grin on his face.

"By the look on your face I'm assuming that she isn't microchipped?" she turned to him with her legs crossed.

"Yeah. Now we can keep her without a guilty consciousness." he stated happily as he reached down to pet her. She was a lot more calmer but still in some distress. "How are your rabbits doing by the way?" he continued to pet her as her looked up at Lensha.

"They should be fine, they'll be drowsy when I get them back but everything should be fine." she wrung her fingers nervously, Chec patted her on the back in comfort.

After 15 minutes Lensha's name was called so she could retrieve her rabbits. The operations had gone off without a hitch, they would be drowsy for the rest of the night into tomorrow and they had to wear cones on their heads so they wouldn't pick at the stitches. Tick and Pumpa didn't seem to mind much but Slippers was not happy at all. Even though he was still drugged up he was still active enough to throw a fit trying to get the cone off, eventually he gave up but she could tell by looking into his demon eyes that he was going to make this hell for her. Luckily tomorrow was Saturday so at least she wouldn't have anything terribly important to do.

"Alright, where's Gloris?" Lensha asked aloud as she looked around the colvasac, Chec tapped her shoulder and pointed to their left. As if everything was in slow motion they saw Gloris running up to them with 2 handmade bags in her hands looking as happy as a child who got a free jumbo-sized lollipop from the candy store and even though that couldn't hear her the could tell she was laughing. "Oh God, what kinda crap did she buy..." Lensha glared at her from afar like an angry mother.

"Guys! Guys! Look what I got. loooookie~!" she shouted gleefully when she finally reached them. Lensha didn't bother looking though her bags figuring that she just bought a bunch of stuff that she didn't need, Chec however could not surpress his curiosity. He searched nosily though her bags and saw that she bought some necklaces, some herbs and spices, sweets, and a ton of bracelets. He didn't understand why she bought so much jewelry, the only type of jewelry that he'd ever seen her wear was a necklace with a shark tooth on it that her father sent to her from Australia. 

"Why did you buy so many bracelets?" he willed himself to ask.

"Oh! They're not all for me! I'm gonna sent some back to Australia annnd~!" she dug though her pocket and pulled out 4 bracelets "These are for you guys!" she smiled broadly at them as she handed them 2 bracelets each. The ones she gave to Chec were made of yarn one was black with purple trim with blue and red beads and the other was also black with white triangle woven into it and with white beads on it. The ones she gave to Lensha were both made of blue dyed leather with black diamonds woven into one and light green beads on it while the other had a single strand of black leather woven into it with sky blue and yellow beads on it. Gloris's gift to them brought warmth to both of their hearts, sure they were just bracelets but they enjoyed the thought she put into picking them out. Considering that she often described Chec as a Ying Yang and Lensha as the ocean in the past, they thought it was cute how she managed to find bracelets representing those things.

"Thanks Glory." Lensha sighed, her previous irritation melting away.

"Yeah, thank you Gloris." Chec gave her a hug.

"No problem!" she gladly accepted the hug.

"Let's get going I have less than an hour to get back to shelter." They didn't understand why he seemed to be worried about being past curfew since the walk only took 15 minutes but they just nodded and Gloris picked up Slippers before making their way back. 

The crowds had dissipated and the vendors were packing up when that got out into the main part of the Plaza, which were good for all of them so they would no longer be tempted by the interesting items and food they sold. Lensha had to come back here when she had some free time someday.

They had gotten halfway through their walk when Mystic began to absolutely freak out. She started barking and whining uncontrollably frightening the rabbits as well as the humans that held them. She started sniffing the ground and the air as she ran frantically in circles. Chec looked up at the street sign and realized they were back at 53rd street, the same street she where her odd behavior had began. 

"Chec what's the matter with her!?" Lensha asked.

"I don't know! She's never acted like this before!"  he just managed to get out of her way when she began to dart blindly around them. She nearly knocked Lensha down before she suddenly halted in front of the alley and stared into it. "Mystic...? Come here girl, lets go home ..." he slowly reached out to grab her but her loud startling bark made him pull back; it was the loudest he's ever heard her. She began to whine more and pace around before she bolted into the darkness. 

"MYSTIC!" they all shouted simultaneously. Chec attempted to run in after her but Lensha grabbed his wrist.

"You can't just run in there like that, dude!" Gloris shouted "Look how dark it is in there!" she motioned to the alleyway, Chec stared at her with wide eyes looking between the alley and the two you women a few times before calming down. Lensha released his wrist and dug out her phone from her pocket and turned on the flashlight app she had, Gloris replicated the action. Without exchanging another word they all went inside, the alley was just wide enough for them to walk side by side.

"Mystic...?" Chec called out. After a beat of nothing but the sounds of their foot steps Mystic began barking continuously as if she was trying to alert them to something. Lensha and Gloris used their makeshift yet very effective flashlights to scan the area, however the only thing they saw were trash cans, buildings and the unpaved road beneath them. Lensha's flashlight landed on an opening to the right of them, it led into yet another alley but it sounded like that where Mystic's barks were coming from, although she couldn't be too sure since it echoed though out the alley. 

"Hey guys." she called out to them, the other two members of the group turned to face her and she pointed towards the entrance. They both nodded their heads and they headed towards it. Lensha's hunch appeared to be correct, as they got closer towards the entrance her barks got louder and she could have sword they started to sound more ... desperate.

They went through the entrance and they immediately began scanning the new area with their lights, Mystic's golden eyes glimmered when Lensha's light landed on her. She barked then turned around as if she wanted them to follow her, the group glanced among themselves before silently agreeing to follow the distressed canine. As if sensing their compliance Mystic bolted into the shadows, the ladies struggled to keep their lights on her as they all ran down the alley. Lensha nearly fell once again when they all took a sharp right into a brick over hang that appeared to be a basic garage. Lensha and Gloris once again searched around with their lights desperately trying to pinpoint the flurry of barking.

"Oh shit!" Gloris shouted, she jumped back so forcefully that she bumped into the other two members of the group before she fell on the ground, dropping he phone in the process and nearly dropping the rabbit carrier.

"What is i-! Oh my God..." Lensha's light had finally landed on what Gloris apparently saw. A young girl was laying on the ground her back facing towards them curled up in a ball. Lensha stood with her hand over her mouth and Gloris still on the ground in shock, Chec however moved into action upon seeing the girl. He put the carrier down and crouched down beside her and began to shake her, he couldn't help but to notice that she was cold to the touch.

"Are you okay? Can you hear me? Ma'am?" she didn't respond, he shook her harder "Ma'am please! Can you hear me!? ... Lensha, Gloris, one of you call an ambulance!" Chec shouted, his frantic shouts had released Gloris from her trance-like state, she searched and quickly found her phone and dialed 511. Lensha was still in shock, she didn't even notice the tears streaming down her face.

"Hello 5-"

"Um, yes we f-found a girl in the alley and s-she m-might be dead!" Gloris shouted over Mystic's ceaseless barking. 

"Okay ma'am, please try to stay calm. Can you tell me where you are located?"

"W-we're in an alley on 53rd street, pl-please hurry!" she clutched the phone closer to her ear in and attempt to ease her trembling.

"Paramedics on on their way ma'am just please stay on the the line with me, okay?" Gloris hummed into the phone.

After a final bark Mystic stuffed herself between the girl and the wall and nuzzled into her body, Chec felt her shiver. She was alive.

"She's alive!" He shouted, his voice echoed slightly in the brick den.

"She is alive? Did I hear that correctly ma'am?"

"Y-yes." the sounds of sirens could be heard off in the distance.

The girl began shivering uncontrollably so he pulled her off the ground and brought her closer to his body, Mystic followed along with her pressing her own body against her as well. The girl pressed herself further into his old sweater and her shivering decreased, he held her close like a protective bear cooing comforting words to her but also to himself.

"Okay ma'am, I'm going to need you and everyone else who is with you to take the girl out onto the sidewalk outside the alley so the paramedics can begin treating her as soon as possible okay?" Gloris managed to steady her nerves.

"Got it." she pulled the phone from her ear "Chec, we need to take her out to the sidewalk." Chec nodded then her stood up slowly and began to walk swiftly yet gently out of the alley with Mystic following suit. Gloris hung back for a few seconds to collect Lensha who at this point was leaning against the wall. She had to shake her pretty hard in order to get her to snap out of it but when she finally did she pointed back the way they came, she glanced around in a daze then followed Gloris out after she grabbed Tick. By the time they got out to the sidewalk the ambulance had just pulled up and Chec was transferring the girl to the paramedic who jumped out of the back. 

"Oh God, is she gonna be okay?" Lensha asked with new tears welling up in her eyes, Gloris put a hand on her shoulder.

"She's alive, she's gonna be fine Len, don't worry." her words carried doubt as the other paramedic crawled into the back with the first parametric and the girl and began to check her out. Chec had to hold Mystic back from jumping into the ambulance herself as they checked her over.

"Ma'am can you hear me?" the brown haired paramedic asked as he pried her eyelids open "They're dilated, we need to get some fluids in her." he said to the black haired paramedic. He nodded and searched in the over head cabinets and retrieved a plastic pouch filled with a clear liquid and a tube attached to it with a needle on her end. 

"Hold her arm still for me." he requested, his partner complied and firmly held her shaky arm to the gurney. The other slowly began to insert the needle into her arm but he was suddenly punched in the face and the other was kicked in the shoulder. The girl slowly sat up her hair hanging and clinging to her face making her look like something from a Japanese horror film. 

"Ma'am it's okay, we're paramedics! We're trying to help you!" the man who wasn't punched in the face spoke with his hands up in the air and his back pressed up against the wall of the ambulance. The girl made no further movements she just appeared to be staring at the two men, the paramedic took a step forward and lowered his hands "Would you like our assistance?" he questioned crouching slightly.

"Va. Singy corure." she answered in a foreign language, she then got off the gurney on wobbly legs. She looked around the ambulance and then at the people who had found her, then her non-visible eyes landed on Mystic and her whole mood seemed to change. "Shinka!" she shouted before she stumbled out the ambulance, she fell onto the ground but she didn't seem to care at all as the excited canine trotted towards her and into her embrace. The girl words were muffled as she spoke into her fur and squeezed her tightly, Mystic's tail wagging like Chec had never seen before. Forget the speed of sound it was at moc-20 as she was held by the girl. After a few minutes the girl released her from the hug and stood up, the brown haired paramedic now standing right beside her one holding a clipboard.

"Ma'am are you sure you don't want or need any medical attention?" he asked obviously still concerned and confused.

"Aye." she answered simply. The paramedic looked at Chec and the others completely dumbfounded, they were all pretty much on in the same boat at this point.

"Okay, well I'm going to need you to sign this stating that you refuse to accept any medical attention." he sighed as he handed her the clipboard. She looked between him and the clipboard before cautiously taking it. She looked over the first page then flipped to the last one and signed it via the pen that was attached to it by a small ball chain. She handed it back and he looked over her signature. "Okay, there's nothing we can do." he looked dishearteningly at the group before he climbed back into the ambulance "Ma'am I advise you to go home get some rest and drink plenty of fluids. Take care." he advised before shutting the doors then the vehicle started up and driving away.

Lensha, Chec and Gloris stood in astonishment at what just took place, the girl just got up, punched and kicked the people who where trying to HELP HER, she refused their help and they just drove away!? The girl was acting like nothing had even happened, just standing there swaying to and fro, to and fro ... to and - oh shit she's falling!

Luckily, Chec grabbed her by the large light purple shirt she was wearing before she could hit the ground. Wait, a minute... He pushed the hair out of the way and almost immediately recognized her face.

"Its ... the girl from 2 weeks ago..." he said blankly.

"What?" the ladies said in unison.

"Come take a look for yourselves." they did just that, walking nervously over to them and just as he said it was her. She was wearing the same clothes from when they last saw her with the addition of some new holes and cuts, she looked paler then from what Lensha remembered and the painfully dark bags under her eyes had gotten even darker, which she didn't even think was possible.

"What do we do now? Lensha asked.

"I-I don't know... Takin her to a hospital would be useless at this point." the ladies nodded in agreement.

"Maybe you can take her back to the shelter?" Gloris offered, he didn't respond, just continued to stare at the frail looking girl.

"That's the only option I think we have other than just leaving her here and there's no way I'm going to do that." he sighed.

"Then we might want to get back soon." Lensha turned her phone to them, 10:51 her clock read. 

The group said their good-byes before Chec went on ahead back to the shelter and Lensha and Gloris walked in stunned silence the whole way back to the car. Driving Gloris home was no difference either, the silence continued as they both still tried to make sense of what in the world happened in their heads. After Lensha dropped Gloris off at her apartment complex she went home, still wracked with confusion, worry and now exhaustion.

Today had been one hell of a day.

\----

Chec sped walked as swiftly yet gently as he could so not to disturb the girl in his arms, Mystic galloped beside him not taking her eyes off of her for even a second. She didn't move at all as he walked, she was as limp as a sock and as cold as winter. He couldn't help but to be consumed by worry, she looked so frail, so ... lifeless and the fact that she seemed to weigh practically nothing made the feeling that he was carrying a corpse all the more prominent. He shuttered at the intrusive thoughts.

He looked up and the shelter and Viper locking the door from the outside, making it so people inside can get out but people on the outside can't get in. As if she sensed his presence she looked in his direction. Her mouth agape she held out her shaky hands on either side of the girl's haired covered face being to startled to actually touch her. She looked up at him, her olive green eyes were full of horror and nothing but croaks and whimpers came from her still open mouth. Chec had known Viper for years and he's been alongside her during some dark times but had never seen her this horrified before.

"She's alive." he finally spoke after a few moments of stunned silence. 

"Oh thank God." She exhaled in relief and put her hand over her heart, she honestly look like she was going to faint. "You could've said something sooner! Having me being scared and shit!" she huffed with her hands now on her sides.

"I'm sorry. I just never see-" she shook her head and put an index finger to his mouth.

"Never mind that, let's get her inside, its freezing out here." Chec nodded and followed her back to the shelter.

When they got inside heads immediately turned to them to see who had come in, when people recognized who he was holding they started whispering among themselves. Most people tried to be at least somewhat discrete about their gossiping while others continued to stare right at him and the girl whole they exchanged their baseless theories; he really hated it when people stared at him. Viper tugged lightly on his sweater sleeve revealing him of some of his nervousness.

"Take her in the cot room, I'll bring you both some food." she instructed, Chec nodded once again and made his way through the multiple pairs of eyes staring at him. Some stared out of confusion, curiosity, or concern, while others seemed to be judging him as if he somehow caused the girl to look like this. He hunched up his shoulders, hid as much of his face as he could behind his turtle neck and trudged thought the ocean of eyes.

They're weren't too many people in the cot room and the people who were in their were either asleep, playing cards or just minded their own business. The only person who seemed to care or even notice him was Rome who was looking at the inside of an old locket he had. When he spotted him and his cargo he practically flew of his cot and walked up to them.

"Whoa. You actually found her..." he stared at her in surprise.

"With Mystic'she help." he looked down at the normally hyperactive canine but ever since they found her she had been quiet and somber. 

"She looks sick, man." he moved out of his way.

"Yeah, something is wrong with her but she didn't want any medical attention, so ... yeah." he laid her gently in the cot beside the one he normally slept in. As soon as he set her down Mystic hopped up and laid beside her.

"What do you mean? Did you guys take her to a doctor or something?"

"No, but an ambulance was called." Rome hummed and went back to his cot which was in front of Chec's and diagonal to the girl's. Chec went to sit his cot as well.

"What's her name by the way? Do you know?" Chec shook his head and stared disheatingly at her and Mystic. Clearly these two had some type of a relationship and she seemed very protective of her. 

"What is she even doing out here?" he grumbled under his breath as he looked her over; a reoccurring habit of his. Rome silently watched and listened "Was she a runaway? No, no, then she would be on the news. Maybe her parents don't know she's missing? How long has she been out there?" he noticed a cut on her neck and in an instant he got angry _. 'Only a coward would hurt a small teenager like her.'_ His thoughts of anger then turnrd to dread _'Oh God, what if they-'._

His thoughts weye cut off by Rome placing a hand on his shoulder causing him to jump back in surprise. 

"Ya gettin' a bit worked up there.", ' _Calm down, she's fine.'_ are what his words actually translated to. "Just ... get some rest, man. You look like shit." he patted him on the back but he didn't move. Chec sighed, nodded then laid down, Rome took the ugly forest green blanket and covered him up before finally returning to his cot.

Needless to say, he didn't get much sleep that night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this chapter being late, I actually got it done the night before (11/22/16) but it hadn't been beta read since I actually finished at like 2 in the morning X_x. 
> 
> -Sigh- Anyway I kinda tried to do a bit of world building I guess (?) with the Plaza's since they're pretty much everywhere and they may pop up from time to time. I don't really know how to world build through literature really.
> 
> I hoped you enjoyed despite it being 1 day late o/.
> 
> Words before chapter: A little over 9000


	4. Saturday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to notice a trend of not knowing how to start chapters XD. Another thing I noticed is that I never gave a physical description of Lensha (excluding her height), so I kinda did here...? I'm not that great at describing people to be honest X_x
> 
> Sorry this chapter is so late! I had multiple hurdles to jump in order to get this thing out proper! First I didn't like how the chapter was going so I scraped it about 3 times and started over, lack of motivation, writers (if i can even call myself one) block, and final projects so my apologies OwO;
> 
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> 
> **NOTE: Added some more to the end, well re-added because it went missing somehow when I uploaded it X_x**
> 
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> [ My Tumblr (It is ass) ](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/kodako-autumn%20)  
> [ My DA (it is also ass but slightly less ass?](http://kodako-autumn.deviantart.com/%20)

Lensha woke up but she refused to open her eyes, it was Saturday and she still felt exhausted so it wouldn't hurt to sleep in a few more hours. She rolled over onto her right side and felt herself sink slightly into her unbelievably soft bed before rising back up with a light bounce. Wait, beds don't work like that... She begrudgingly opened her eyes and saw white before her, beyond that was blue going on for infinity; this clearly wasn't her bedroom. She shot up and looked around.

The 'bed' she was sitting on was white, fluffy and light, it felt like very light fleece with some moisture trapped within. She looked up and saw that the sky above her was a cyclone of colors, from the center outwards it was yellow to orange to red to purple to indigo then finally blue taking up a majority of the sky all around her. A harsh frigid breeze sliced through her auburn hair and made her lime green eyes water, it felt like small pieces of glass had scrapped and cut her skin as the breeze passed by. She stood up and it felt like she was going to float away, it was as if gravity had decreased.

After a few minutes of fumbling about like an idiot she finally adjusted to the lessened gravity and she could stand properly without feeling nauseous or risking floating away. She looked behind her and saw that the fluffy land ended abruptly, there was nothing beyond it other than the blue abyss. It was the same concerning the left and right sides but ahead she could see in the distance another white fluffy land, it was more like a small mountain than the flat land that she was standing on. What was she even standing on?

She knelt down and gently pushed her hand into and through the land effortlessly. It was like touching cotton candy but much more softer and lighter. ' _Huh, so I really am standing on a cloud_.', she thought to herself. She pushed herself from her position, the force of her suddenly getting up combined lessened gravity caused her to float in mid air for a few seconds before gently floating back down. Oh ... she had an idea now. She backed out to the edge of her cloud island then took a running leap towards the more 'jagged' second cloud island.

She landed on the island on her stomatch with a soft 'plomf'; good thing she landed on a cloud or that would have been ugly. As she pulled herself off the ground she looked behind her and saw that she just barely made it being only a couple feet from the edge. She shook of the nauseating feeling of dread and continued on forward. There was risen cloud on both sides of her making it seem like she was in a small canyon or valley and making a narrow pathway that closed in more and more the further she went down. She was becoming afraid that it would narrow to a point that she wouldn't be able to continue but luckily for her that wasn't the case.

She came out the other side of the cloud canyon and wandered into an opening surrounded by fog. She couldn't help but to feel unnerved by the ominous area, being in the sky was scary enough but being surrounded by vision limiting fog made it even worse. She turned around and debated going back the way she came but that snarling black wolf wouldn't dare to let her leave. The wolf had long silky black fur but it also appeared to have puffs of smoke coming from its body, for a matter of fact it smelled like smoke. The wolf was as tall as she was by the head, it had pearly white teeth and there were two black empty voids where it's eyes should be.

More snarling was heard behind her, she turned around and sure enough there were more identical black wolves. Dozens upon dozens of them emerged from the fog snarling and slowly closing in on her. The previously white cloud was transformed into an ocean of darkness in the blink of an eye, she could only stand there in fear and confusion as one of the eyeless wolves walked up to her and snorted in her face. She didn't flinch, she didn't blink, she didn't show emotion as the wolf opened its mouth so wide that she heard the bones in its jaw pop and break, it was more than wide enough to consume her buxom body whole. The wolf let out a particularly loud and disgusting snarl before lunging its deformed head towards her, she closed her eyes and tensed up preparing to be devoured.

But she wasn't swallowed.

She looked back at the shadowy canine along with all the othersto see that it was looking behind itself, its head now back to normal as if nothing happened. She cautiously leaned to the right and peered behind the wolf, the wolf shifted and perked its ears as if it was listening to something. But she couldn't hear anything?

She saw a large shadow moving among the fog but she couldn't quite make out the shape. She squinted and concentrated and gradually the figure came into view and melodic singing could be heard. She subconsciously relaxed at the song of the womanly voice, even though she couldn't make out what she was saying it was soothing and hypnotic.

A much larger wolf walked out of the fog and stared directly at her as she walked towards her, splitting the crowd of smaller wolves. The closer she got the better she could see the mega wolf and the louder her song became; even though she wasn't moving her mouth. The (presumably) she wolf was at least 7 feet tall, her abnormally long tail flowed elegantly with the steady breeze, and with every graceful step her sleek long fur waved and bounced with the movement. When she got close enough for her to look into her eyes she was left completely mesmerized. Her eyes had seemingly every color in existence swirling around her eyes like a school of fish swimming in the ocean, her sclera was dark grey instead of white and sporting deep blue veins. Allbeit the colors appeared faded they were still unreal.

Her captivating song coming to an end was the only thing that distracted her from her internal starring contest and her deep and seductive voice echoed though her head as she began to speak.

"You shouldn't stare, you might miss something." Lensha looked confused "For example the feathers on your shoulders and the wolf who has been standing beside you the entire time." Lensha looked to her left, nothing, she looked to her right and jumped back. Sure enough, one of the wolves were sitting right beside her, the feathers had flown off of her shoulders and got picked up and carried off into the wind. She looked back up to see that the she wolf appeared to be smiling

"It really is beautiful ... if only you could see it." she put a large paw to the center of her chest, right above her sternum "Instead you are unaware of what is around you, what you have. You focus on things you cannot obtain. You ignorantly let it sit there and smolder like dying coal." she isn't sound angry with her but more like a disappointed mother who knows that their child can do better "Maybe you will find your can of gasoline and feel the strong yet ,hopefully, controlled flames of your soul or maybe the suffocating smoke will smother you.".

Lensha felt her leg begin to itch. When she looked down she saw the cloud rapidly engulfing her leg and dragging her downwards. She reached up towards the she wolf but she had turned her back on error and began walking away, she looked to her right and the black wolf was gone. She frantically searched around but they were all were gone.

The cloud had gotten up to her waist as she desperately clawed at the soft land trying to keep herself from being dragged under but her hands only went right through the cloud. She felt her legs drop from the cloud and dangle within the blue void; she felt exposed. Screaming the cloud pinned her hands in front of her and began engulfing them as well, she pleaded into the colorful sky for someone to help her but was inevitably silenced by the cloud covering her mouth. She could only cry as it covered her eyes and forcefully pushed her through the underside and into the void. She saw the two cloud islands shrink rapidly as she fell into nothingness.

Now darkness had its turn to consume her.

A shout ripped from her throat when her back hit the wooden floor of her bedroom. She inhaled deeply then exhaled as she laid motionledd on the unforgiving floor, her blanket was wrapped tightly around her leg. She stayed there for a good 30 minutes, alone with her thoughts and blossoming back pain debating whether to get up and embrace the pain or to continue to lay there like a lump. She looked over to her left and read the time on the digital clock on her nightstand; 11:34. The floor was looking like the better option at this point but however was calling her thought it was the perfect time for her get up apparently. She didn't move, she wasn't going to answer, she was too tired and already irritated from the pain. Eventually her ringtone ended and her phone went to voicemail, whoever called didn't leave once as evident of the absence of the chime she got whenever one was left; which happened to be set to a single duck quack. She sighed and draped her arm over her eyes blocking them from the sun light peaking through the curtains. Once again there was nothing but silence, birds chirping, and the sound of the bree- WHY.

The phone began ringing once again. Okay, now this was really getting on her nerves. Trying to be absolute in her decision she stayed on the floor, her hand clenched in a fist from irritation, she didn't care if it was Great Auntie Mei calling from beyond the grave she wasn't going to answer the phone! After a few more moments of instantiate ringing her last nerve had been got and she rolled over onto her side and reached for her cellphone on the nightstand.

"What?" she answered her voice burning with hostility. The person on the other line seemed taken aback by her tone and they took a few seconds to answer.

"Its me..." of course it was Gloris, who else did she expect, it not like anyone besides her calls anymore "Are you okay? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" she sounded guilty and worried.

"Heh, I didn't even wake up ON the bed." she chuckled briefly then winced, even the slightest of movements hurt at the point.

"Did you fall out of the bed again?" she sighed.

"Maaaaybe~?"

"Oh my God, Len." she could practically hear her face-palm "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." she lied, she was in some pretty significant pain right now "Anyway, what's up? You don't normally call me this early on a weekend?"

"Yeah, I know, I was just wondering if your going to the shelter today?"

"Are you still worried about the girl?" she finally decided to pull herself off the floor by using her mattress as leverage.

"Yeah, I mean, she looked awful, dude." Lensha winced again both out of physical and emotional pain as images of last night ran through her mind. 

"Yeah, I'm going. Why, do you wanna come with?" she got on her bed and laid on her stomach.

"Nah, can't my dad is coming up here for a visit so I actually have to clean my house." she groaned.

"Oh really? Why the sudden visit?" 

"Pff, who knows. You know how he is." she heard the sound of her spraying something.

Lensha had met Gloris's father before, he was a very ... interesting man to say the least. He was pretty much a older male version of his daughter, except for he had grey hairs, had a mustache and was more, how do you say it, insane.  

"Oh no!" Lensha could hear glass breaking and a dog barking "Moose no! Stop! Stop running around and breaking shi- OH GOD!" she heard a loud thud and a crash "Dog lost his mind, call you later BYE!" she said quickly before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Lensha laid on her bed in stunned silence for a few moments before the endless single tone beep began anoyying her and she hung up the phone. 

She debated whether to go back to sleep or get up and go to the shelter later and she was leaning towards going back to sleep. Yeah, she felt a bit guilty but she missed over 4 hours of sleep last night worrying about her. She turned over slowly in order to not cause any more pain and closed her eyes. She was just about to drift off to sleep, and possibly another acid trip of a dream before the sounds of bunny chaos coming from her living room forced her to get up.

She went down to hall and peered around the corner into the living room cautiously. Pumpa and Tick were on the other side of the room watching their younger brother freak out. He was bouncing, thrashing and crashing into things as he tried in vein to take off the cone. The poor devilish soul. Not.

She managed to herd to tiny tyrant into the enclosure and lock him in, it didn't solve the main problem but at least there would be a little bit more peace in the house. She look up at the clock on her wall, 1:04.

Well she was already up now, might as well feed the bros. and head out.

She fed her rabbits, made a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, brushed her teeth, put on a pair of sweat pants and a pumpkin orange sweater in the spirit of autumn, then went on her way to the shelter. 

She became so worried about the girl that the drive there had become almost unbearable. It felt like there was a pit in her stomach and she had a white knuckle death grip on error steering wheel as she drove. Images of that pale face flashed through her head, the dark bags under her sunken eyes, her dirty yet oddly damp hair. Screw being on death's doorstep she was halfway into the house judging purely by the sight of her. Then again, the way she punched thoes paramedics, so swiftly and controlled, that's not something someone who's halfway into death's house would be able to do. Then again she did past out after getting out and refusing medical treatment. She honestly didn't know what to think anymore, but she had so many questions. Was she okay? Will she be okay? What happened to her? Where did she come from? How is she related to Mystic? What the hell was a 'Shinka'? She had so many questions and even if she was well enough to be questioned they wouldn't be able to communicate with her anyway because she doesn't speak english!

She face planted into her steering wheel in frustration while waiting at a stop light.

"Why am I getting worked up over a girl who's name I don't even know?" she unclenched the steering wheel "Maybe I should just go back home ... heh, yeah, and not get any sleep because I'm still worrying about her? Yeah right.". She yelped when the person behind her had no patients for her pitiful moral dilemma and honked at her when she failed to move when the light changed. She decided to continue on to the shelter, its not like she had anything better to do and even if she did she wouldn't be able to because the worry would consume her.

When she got to the shelter she parked her car and entered the building cautiously, not really knowing what to expect with the girl being there. All she could hope for is that it wouldn't be as chaotic like the last time she was here. Luckily there was practically no one there which wasn't unusual since in general it was safer in the daytime, so most people were out doing their own thing.

"Oh, hey Lensha. You're here early." Viper greeted after she walked out of the kitchen.

"Hey." she waved "Yeah, I'm here ... is ... everything okay?" she asked while pushing her index fingers together, Viper already knew what she meant.

"Yeah, right now they are. Last night ... not so much." she grit her teeth and glanced towards the bathrooms then turned back towards her "The girl woke up in the middle of the night and understandably started freaking out. She was screaming in Mayengin, trashing all about the place and pretty much had a fuckin' mental breakdown." she put a hand over her face "Some people tried to calm her down but she beat the teeth outta them, literally, like, she punched out Crazy Nick's tooth." she used her hands and broad movement to emphasize the story.

"Oh God, is everyone okay?" 

"Oh yeah~! Everyone's fine! Nick's teeth were rotted out to hell anyway so he didn't feel a thing, no one else was hurt and the girl locked herself up in the janitors closet over there along with Mystic ... I'm getting really worried about her to be honest." she looked just as worried as Lensha felt. "Me and Chec tried talking to her but she either wouldn't answer or she would kick the door. Hell, I even saw Rome try to talk to her when he thought no one was lookin' but I got eyes in the back of this ol' head." she pointed at her head in a victorious manner but Lensha stopped paying attention when she told her that she locked herself in he closet. "Ey' you wanna try to get her to come outta the closet?" she sneered.

Lensha stared towards the bathrooms anxiously then looked away nor picking up on her pun "I probably wouldn't make much of a difference if I tried."

"Meh, who knows, ya' don't know if you don't try at least." she shrugged, Lensha didn't make any movements towards the closet nor did she say anything else. Viper tried to keep her confident smile on her face but it soon fell along with the peppy mood she tried to keep between them "You want some work while you're here are are you going to go back home? I could honestly use another pair of of hands." she admitted her entire body slumping as if her spirit had been sucked out of her. Well now she just felt bad.

"Yeah, I'll help! What do you want me to do?" Lensha was now the one putting up a peppy faceade. 

"You mind cleaning the kitchen?" Lensha shook her head and Viper patted her shoulders "Good, cus' I do! I'll be in the guys bathroom if ya need me!" she shouted joyfully, her mood now restored.

"Kay~." even she felt a little better from her infectious mood. Viper marched over to the bathroom, kicked the door open with excessive force and yelled "Oi, put ya dicks away and get out! This bitch needs cleaning!" Luckily no one was actually in there to witness the over dramatic intrusion but maybe she already knew that.

Lensha shook her head and went into the kitchen and ... the entire thing was a catastrophe. There was pancake batter on the wall and stove top, blueberries and strawberries strewn about, various liquids spilled on the counter tops and dirty dishes EVERYWHERE. She assumed that other volunteers made breakfast without Viper being in there because even though she wasn't a clean freak like her but the buff Columbian was not going to put up with a dirty kitchen under any circumstances. If she caught someone leaving a mess behind she would berate them in spanish until they either fled or cleaned it up. Either way she had her work cut out for her, so she cracked her knuckle and got to it.

At least she was going to until she heard a thump come from the pantry. Assuming something probably fell she walked towards it, opened the shutter doors. Of course it was pitch black so she smacked her hand on around blindly trying to find the light switch when she heard what sounded like a bag of chips fall and someone whisper harshly under their breath. It took her a couple seconds for her brain to actually process what she just heard but when she connected the dots she screamed and stumbled backwards, falling onto the floor. A few moments after rapid pounding footseteps could be heard racing towards her.

 "What happened!?" Viper shouted after throwing open the door.

"Are you okay!?" Chec was right next to her with Rome peering over both of the taller's shoulders until concerdingly. Lensha shakly pointed at the pantry were more rustling could be heard coming from it. 

"Oh hell no, we better not have rats!" Viper snarled rolling up one of the sleeves of her black sweater and marching towards the pantry. After taking only a couple of steps the lights began to flicker halting her advancement towards the vermin. 

"The hell...?" Rome said looking up at the ceiling in bewilderment. Less than a minute later the flickering stopped and the lights returned to normal. Lensha managed to regain her senses and push herself off of the floor. Chec was by her side ensuring that she was okay as she stood on her wobbly legs.

"What happened?" he asked looking her over worryingly, Lensha didn't say anything. 

Instead she walked slowly towards the dark pantry, she felt like someone was calling her. She felt mild burning sensation in her chest, it wasn't nessicarilly painful but it wasn't pleasurable either. The burning sensation was abruptly replaced with the feeling that she had been hit with a hammer right in the center of her chest and she felt a strange wave of heat punch through her entire body. She stopped for a moment then hesitantly took another step forward.

"This is some horror movie type shit." Rome commented, Viper nudged him somewhat playfully

"Hello?" Lensha called, nothing.

"Is ... someone in the pantry?" Viper whispered to Rome he shrugged his shoulders.

"You can come out, we aren't going to hurt you." she felt that whoever was inside desperately wanted her to stay away so she stayed a few feet back. The longer Lensha stood there staring into the darkness the more confused and worried everyone got.

After a few beats of silence more rustling came from the the pantry along with 2 hands with the middle finger nail painted black emerged from the darkness grabbing onto the door frame, then the girl pulled herself off the floor exiting the darkness and stood in the doorway with a guilty look on her face. 

"H-How did she ... when did you? I didn't see her leave the closet?!" Viper shouted motioning towards the lobby. "Did you Chec? You were in there with me." she pointed at him.

"I didn't see anything and Rome was asleep so he wouldn't have seen anything regardless." he responded, Rome shrugged. The girl shrunk in on herself when all eyes were on her now, she held her head down in shame causing her matted hair to once again hang in her face.

"Al-..." she mumbled unintelligibly as she scratched her wrist.

"I'm sorry what was that sweetheart?" noticing her distress Viper spoke softly to her.

"Aljeh..." she repeated.

"Algae?" Rome asked, the girl squeezed her wrist.

"I ... I em sorry." she apologized in a heavy accent.

"Ohhhh! So you DO speak english! Well that would've been helpful before!" Rome shouted then grunted when Viper punched him in the shoulder.

"Hush you, she was confused and scared!" she paused to take in a breath then looked back at the girl "Why are you in here, honey? Is there something you need?" still looking guiltily at the floor the girl interlocked her fingers tightly and shook her head; she looked ready to break under some unseen pressure. "Are you sure?" Viper took a tentative step forward, the girl took a step back and nodded. Everyone stood around in awkward silence trying not to stare at the clearly nervous girl. The poor thing was sweating as if she had a fever, her eyes never looked upwards, she had her hands clasped together as if her very life depended on it. She was a pitiful sight to behold.

"Hey, where's the dog?" Rome asked breaking the tension filled air now that everyone had something else to worry about.

"Good question..." Chec replied obviously not knowing the answer himself, he looked out of the doorway into the lobby and look around then looked back at the girl. He didn't have to say a thing since the very millisecond his gaze landed on her she stiffened and walked rigidly out of the kitchen and into the lobby. Standing in the middle of the lobby she then put her index and thumb fingers in her mouth and mad a sharp high pitched whistle, seconds afterwards Mystic shot out of the closest, skidding across the floor bounding towards them and into the girls awaiting embrace. Chec walked behind the girl with an odd look on his face and spoke.

"So ... this is your dog?" he asked, the sudden sound of his voice along with him being so close to her practically made her jump out of her skin. She took a shaky step backwards but Mystic stood her ground, she was standing protectively, her eyes boring into his body, her lopsided ears as straight as he's ever seen them, and her tail straight up in the air. Chec really didn't want to lose his confidence, he bent down to be at eye level with her. In her yellow eyes he saw something different, they looked the same just as every other time he looked at them but the way she looked at him felt different. It felt as if he was looking into the eyes of a dog he has never met before, as if those two weeks he had spent with her, feeding her, petting her, playing with her, all those moments had vanished and all that was left was this stranger's dog. He couldn't accept that. He felt something fall off into nothingness as she stood up and Mystic watched him suspiciously, ready to attack at the slightest hint of danger. He silently turned around and began walking towards the doors "I'm going for a walk." he blankly stated then walked out the door.

Viper could feel his sadness and disappointment and she wanted nothing more than to comfort him but she needed to focus on the girl right now. 

"So, uhm, Mystic is your dog, huh? She's pretty neat." Lensha's spoke up before she could, the girl looked confused.

"Mystic? Whet is eh Mystic?" she looked up causing her hair to fall away from her face and reviling her odd eyes. The left one was dull grey and the right one being a stunning light blue "She is Shehdow." she snapped her fingers and Shadow walked backwards until she was by her side.

"Shadow? Oh, that's a cool name, pretty fitting too since she likes to follow people around." Viper genuinely chuckled before the phone in the office began rigging. "Who the hell could that be? I'll be right back." she groaned, the girl moved to the side as Viper walked passed even though she was already more than faraway enough. 

Now it was only the 2 of them, standing in awkward silence. Lensha looked behind her in hopes of Rome keeping her company; sure he was a sass-ass but she was desperate. Rome was no longer behind her however and she had no idea where he could have gone. She felt even more awkward but a little more at ease at the same time since without him and his snarky attitude talking to her might be easier. Probably not though since she was still clearly nervous. She was still shaking slightly and she was now holding on to her right wrist for dear life but she seemed more confused than anything. She was looking around the place and occasionally to quick glances at her, she didn't seem to know where she was.

"Um," she started to get the girl's attention, she didn't turn around but she could tell that she was watching her from the corner of her grey eye. She appeared to be trying to listen to Viper's muffled phone conversation "Do you ... wanna sit down?" she pointed towards the cafeteria tables off to the left, the girl finally move her head to looking in the direction she was pointing and nodded. She didn't move though until Lensha starting walking towards the tables, she couldn't help but to feel nervous with her behind her. They sat on opposite sides of the table of course, Shadow sticking close to the girl's side. 

She really thought it would be better to sit awkwardly rather than to stand awkwardly but NOPE still just as awkward. Its not that she didn't have anything to talk about, oh she had plenty, but she was afraid to ask anything because this girl seemed so afraid of everything. And rightfully so, she passes out on the streets and wakes up in a strange building filled with strange people in the middle of the night, she would be just as nervous if she was in her shoes! She put her hands on the table and tried to keep up a friendly smile which is pretty hard to do when the person sitting directly across from you seems so damn miserable.

As they sat in silence Lensha finally noticed that she looked slightly better compared to last night. The bags under her eyes had lightened somewhat and some color had returned to her skin but she was still far from well. Her hair was matted and dirty, she looked absolute exhausted and overall she just appeared to be in poor health. She wanted to hug her but she knew that it probably wouldn't be the best course of action right now.

Lensha was about to speak before Viper slammed open the door to the office, startling all of them but more so the girl, she stood up from her seat in a blink of an eye and looked as if she was about to make a run for it; Lensha could have sworn she saw a flash red somewhere. She walked up to them holding her hand to her forehead with a irritated look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Lensha asked, the girl was still standing up staring as wide eyed as her sleepy expression would allow at Viper.

"The chief called. I told him that we found the girl and he said that he's sending a couple of officers over to question her and probably search the place." she huffed.

"Cops?" the girl questioned.

"Police officers." Lensha explained, as soon as she said that the girl went pale, she began to sweat and dug her fingers into the table. Viper walked up to the girl and patted her shoulder, a gesture normally seen as friendly or reassuring but only managed to make the girl flinch back so hard that she nearly fell. Shadow got up and one again stood protectively in front of her.

"Whoa, hey, sorry." Viper held up her hands and took a step back "Its okay, I don't like cops either but they need to question you to make sure you aren't in any danger or anythin'. If you don't want to answer any questions you don't have to, just tell them you don't wanna, okay?" the girl looked over the tall woman as if she was searching for any signs of deception then hesitantly nodded, Viper slowly lowered her hands to her sides. "Okay, they'll be here in a few, just wait here for em. We can even wait with you if ya want." the girl once again searched her face then searched Lensha's for a bit longer before nodding again. Viper sat on the same side with Lensha, the girl sat on the very edge of her side scratching her wrist incessantly. 

Before long the police had arrived. There was one male and the same dirty blond female officer from the last visit. Upon seeing the trio sitting at the table they walked up to them. The female officer walked around to the girl and looked her over, the girl refused to look at her and leaned away from her gaze.

"Yep, this is her. She looks exactly like the sketch I made." she said straightening her posture and putting her hands on her hips, her gaze ever leaving he girl.

"Ya sure?" the male officer asked, his partner nodded "Alright then, we're gonna need you two to leave." he also put his hands on is hips, Viper ground her teeth glaring daggers at him.

"Um, she wants us to stay with her, so..." Lensha spoke, she nudged Viper in an attempt to get her to calm down.

"You still need to go somewhere else though." he crossed his arms which seemed to further enrage Viper.

"Why do we need to leave Mr. ..." she paused stand up and look at his badge "Brendon." she hissed his name, he looked irritated.

"Because-"

"BECAUSE Ms. Grullo," she cut off her colleague and glared at him harshly "it is standard procedure to question a person of interest alone to avoid any kind of influence from other parties." she explained. Viper calmed down somewhat but there was still tension in the air. After the two feuding adults exchanged death glares, Viper finally spoke.

"Okay, we'll go." Viper began  walking towards the hallway with Lensha right behind but not before she stopped right next to her new found enemy and whispered something to him.

The whole time  they were in the small office Viper had her ear pressed up against the door like a nosy mother in law. Lensha was pretty sure that she couldn't actually hear anything but she just let her be, it was pretty much impossible to reason with her when she was irritated. 

She couldn't ease drop for too long though, after about an hour loud knocking on the door along with the female officer announcing that they were finished startled them both; they didn't even hear her walk up! The women walked back into the lobby, Brendon was writing in a small note pad and the girl was sitting in an upward fetal position in the same spot she was in before they left and Shadow was sitting down with the front half of her body on the seat in front of her true owner's feet.

"We can conclude that this young lady is not a runaway. We still don't know too much though but we have just enough info. to believe that she's just homeless." the female officer explain when they got into the lobby. 

 "Oh that's good." Lensha said clearly relieved.

"So does that mean you all will leave me alone now?" the tallest of the women asked with her arms crossed and a row raised, the sound of one of the front doors opening then closing could be heard.

"Yes ma'am. Thank you for your cooperation." she smiled, Viper's only response was a nod before the woman turned around and began walking towards the girl. "Please take care of yourself Ms. Crow." she smiled down at her, she held Shadow's head closer to her and nodded silently, then the officers left.

The newly freed women looked at one another other and mouthed 'Crow?' to each other silently. They looked over at her and she looked more exhausted than ever, the unsightly dark circles under her eyes managing to grow darker over the hour. 

"What now?" Lensha whispered.

"I have no idea." Viper whispered back.

"Well apparently she isn't a runaway."

"But what's her face said that they still didn't know a lot."

"So?"

"So? She could be lying Lensha!" 

"Um..." Crow chimed in from her spot, the arguing women turned to look at her "Kitchen?" she stated plainly. It took a second for them to figure out what she was trying to say but Lensha eventually remembered her unfinished task.

"Oh, yeah..." she had completely forgotten about that, Viper seemed to figure out what she was referring to.

"C'mon I'll help ya clean it, its about to be lunch time." Viper was already hastily making her way to the kitchen while Lensha took a glance at the time; 2:48.

The realization that they had less than 40 minutes to clean that disaster if a kitchen hit her hard.

"Um ... you can stay here if you want while we clean up ... or not I guess?" she struggled to speak before she followed Viper into the kitchen.

At 3:25 the cleaning duo managed to clean the kitchen just as the lunch rush came in like a flash mob. Along with them a few volunteers, both homeless and settled alike, helped out in the kitchen and the food line. Her, Viper along with some other vaguely familiar faces were on what is typically referred to as 'the line' which is just putting the food on peoples plate as they passed by the window. It almost lucky that Viper put some food in most of her slow cookers before Lensha arrived. 

It was such a nice feeling to volunteer here. Sure the first 30 minutes or so we're pure choose but when things slowed down a bit you got to see everyone talking to each other, telling jokes, catching up and just being friendly to one another. It was like everyone here was part of one giant family.

It had been awhile since Lensha helped out during lunch since because of work she usually showed up around dinner. She saw plenty of old faces and new faces as she greeted them all. Some would return a greeting, some wouldn't say anything and others would try to have a full conversation with her causing the line to slow and she or Viper would have to move them along. When the flow of people slowed down she could finally let herself relax and observe the sea of people sitting and dining. It was moments like these that reminded her how nice it was to volunteer here. Sure the first 30 minutes or so we're pure choose but when things slowed down a bit you got to see everyone talking to each other, telling jokes, catching up and just being friendly to one another. It was like everyone here was part of one giant family.

After all the food had been served the serving window was closed and the kitchen was re-cleaned; this time by the other volunteer. Lensha went out into the cafeteria and made her way through the crowd, she talked to some people along the way but kept the conversations short as she made her way to her destination. She finally got to the place she wanted to be, the last place she saw Crow, of course she wasn't there a family of 4 had taken her place. So she searched the cot room and it was empty besides some drunks sleeping off an early bender. She was starting to get worried now but she couldn't go into a full panic there were too many people here for that nonsense. So instead she went back out into the lobby and spotted Viper leaning on the ledge of the serving window talking to some people she didn't know, Viper noticed her as well and waved her over with an odd look on her face. She said her goodbye's to the people she was talking to and they went on their way before she got over there.

"Hey, whatcha looking for?"

"I'm looking for the gi- I mean Crow but I don't think she's in here." she took one more glance around the place just to make sure.

"Ya right, she's not. Those guys I was talking to told me that they saw her leave with Shadow." she stated calmly.

"Annnd you're not worried at all?" 

"A little bit but I don't want to overwhelm her or anything. There's a lot of people here and she was clearly nervous when it was just the 4 of us. Maybe she needed some fresh air or something."

"True." she mumbled mainly to herself and stared off in the distance absentmindedly, except for that she wasn't staring off into the distance but right at a group of people minding their own business. She was so out of it that she didn't even flinch when they started giving her dirty looks, instead it she Viper firmly patting then grabbing her shoulder that made her realize she was staring.

"Go home, kid. You look exhausted." Lensha whipped her head around and saw that she was smiling warmly towards her.

"Are you sure?! Its only 5 o' clock-"

"I'm sure, you've been a huge help today. I appreciate it." she gave her a wide sharp tooth smile, it was almost like looking at a dog's teeth.

"Well, if you're sure I'll head off." Viper effortlessly turned her body towards the front doors and gently pushed her. Lensha looked back and she was waving goodbye playfully, she returned the wave with a smile and headed home. 

\----

7:45 p.m 

Viper was wiping down the tables when Chec and Rome finally came through the doors although she could tell they were trying to be sneaky about it since the normally annoyingly creaky door creaked ever-so slightly when it was opened. Sensing their presence she whipped her head around glared laser beams into their very souls causing them to freeze subconsciously.

"Where in the unholy FUCK were you!?" she shouted marching towards them like a dog getting ready to attack.

"We were-" 

"No!" she cut Rome off by putting a finger to her mouth then pointed at Chec with her other hand and leaned in close "You, explain, now."

"I ... just needed to be alone." he avoided her fierce gaze. She got a hold of herself and leaned away from his face. Even though Chec was older than her by a considerable amount she was still a force to be reckoned with, she could probably body slam his hefty frame if she was pissed enough.

"Is it because of the dog?" she crossed her arms.

"Maybe." she raised a brow in suspicion "Yes..." he sighed but her gaze didn't waver.

"You really love that thing don't ya?" she mumbled almost inaudibly them put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in once again "But I understand." she whispered, when she pulled back she had a sympathetic look in her eyes and a warm smile on her face then in a blink of an eye it morphed back to anger "But you better not ever, EVER worry me like that again! Got it!?" she shouted.

"Y-yes." he nodded.

"Got it." Rome replied even though she didn't appear to be addressing him.

"Oh. And you too, where did you go?" she had one hand on her hip and pointed at Rome. She was noticeably a lot less angry than him compared to Chec but he was just happy to have the heat off of him.

"I went out?" he shrugged, sweat beading on his brow.

"To go look for Chec? That sounds to good to be true."

"And it is, I just didn't want to deal with the lunch rush so I went somewhere else." he said with a smirk on his face.

"I should have known." she rolled her eyes "Oh, I guess I can't ask if you guys saw Crow while you were out?"

"Who the hell is Crow? Is that even an actual person?" Rome asked.

"It the odd eyed girl, her name is Crow."

"Really? That's an interesting name, how did you figure that out? She didn't seem to eager to tell all about herself." Chec questioned.

"The cops came by and questioned her, nothing too serious."

"Oh ... well, I didn't see her. When did she leave?" Chec replied.

"A little after the lunch rush." she turned to Rome "What about you, shirmpy?"

"No, I didn't see her either." he replied through clenched teeth.

"Aw, well I'm sure she'll be back soon, probably just got overwhelmed with all the people." she began walking to the office. "Anyway I'm going home, Kris and all of them should be here in a few so I'm trusting you to hold down the fort until then, Chec! Is that okay?" she shouted from the office.

"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem." he shouted back, Rome covered his ears, his voice coupled with the close proximity made it feel like his ribs were vibrating..

"Alright. I'm off, take care of everything and tell Kris that if the girl comes back to let her in regardless of the time since she dose't know about the curfew." she walked out of the hallway digging through her velvet purse "And here." she lifted one of Chec's large hands, opened it, placed something within then closed it again "Chao." she waved before exiting the building. The men stared at the doors for a few moments then at  his hand.

"What's in it?" Rome asked pulling his arm down so he could see. Chec opened his hand in in the center of his palm lay a lone peppermint candy. "Wha? Why didn't she give me one!" he threw is arms in the air.

"Who knows?" he shrugged, an underhanded dig at the shorter's usual demeanor. Rome pointed at him and opened his mouth to say something before giving up opting to stomp away like a child mumbling swears to himself. Chec looked back at his hand and smiled "Thanks." he whispered to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the abrupt ending this chapter was getting too long X_x
> 
> Words before chapter: 17,341


	5. Nothing is Alright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crow isn't doing too great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter is so chatty but I wanted to make everyone's personalities a bit more clearer since I feel that most of the focus has been on Lensha. :,3

Over the next few weeks Crow had developed a routine, she would show up around 10 a.m, fill a beaten up water canister at the water fountain, linger around for a few hours then leave around lunch. She never slept there and the only thing she ever ate were cheap store bought tortilla chips. Viper and even strangers offered the young woman some warm homemade food but she always refused. It was disappointing but at least her coming around proved that she was alive and in somewhat good condition; and allowed Chec to play with Shadow for a while. 

Despite her being at the shelter for the hours when the least amount of people were there she somehow became very popular among the homeless who stayed there. People would try to talk to her before she left or even right outside the door as she left. Sometimes she would often reply by speaking in Meyingin extremely fast in order to confuse people but more often than not she would simply ignore them and continue walking. Over time people stopped trying to talk to her making her unwanted popularity short lived.

Crow herself was just as mysterious now as she was when she first got there and was driving the more nosy and gossip obsessed folk crazy, especially Gloris and Viper; but mainly Gloris. Gloris was always eager to get to know people she just met, but Viper would never let her bug her for too long since they soon realized that Crow's nervousness wasn't just because she was in a unfamiliar place surrounded by unfamiliar people but because she was genuinely terrified or suspicious of everything and everyone all the time. No matter how friendly Gloris or anyone else was to her she would always react with intense fear and hesitation, the friendlier they are the more nervous she got. With overly friendly people like Gloris Viper had to be on them like white on snow to make sure they didn't stress her out too much and possibly cause her to have another freakout, she made sure that everyone gave her space and left her be. Even Lensha, who normally stayed out of people's business, was getting slightly annoyed by the fact that she so reserved and even secretive but there wasn't much they could do about it. 

\----

Lensha and Gloris had gone to the shelter early since the bakery had closed early because 2 of the 3 ovens weren't working. Lensha had told her father that they needed to be replaced for months but the ol' cheap skate refused to buy new ones. 

Noticing the young women walk in Viper waved them over from her seat at a cafeteria table. It wasn't too busy since it was still pretty early in the day. The only people in there were a few unfamiliar faces both volunteers and homeless alike and the aforementioned owner of the shelter.

"Hey Vip." the tomboys fist bumped each other.

"Hey Gloris, hey Lensha." 

"Hi." Lensha opted to wave, she looked around but didn't find who she was looking for. Viper knocked on the fake wooden table gaining her attention, she pointed ahead and slightly to her right with a cheeky grin on her face. She looked confusingly over in the direction and saw Crow sitting at the table closet to the serving window on the furthest right end with her elbow on the table and her head in her hand; she didn't even see her when they walked in. She was still wearing the same over sized light purple shirt and blue skinny jeans from when they first encountered her, her dirty hair was covering half of her face but she could still see her half lidded grey eye staringly sleepily at the table. Shadow was laying on the floor beside her fast asleep. Seeing that Crow was okay she proceeded to take a seat next to Gloris who had already taken a seated herself next to the Viper.

"Found what you were looking for?" she asked, her grin still on her face.

"Yeah, thanks." she glanced over embarrassingly; she really needed to stop getting so worked up about her.

"No problem, glad to give the youth my guidance." she placed a hand her chest and posed dramatically, the youth's snickered.

"So how has the mystery box been doing?" Gloris asked.

"She's been fine I guess. She still keeps to herself, hell I don't think I've heard her speak ever since you all found her." Lensha tried not to shutter at the thoughts of that night flashing through her head.

"Does she still leave at lunch?" the blondie put her hands behind her head and leaned back against the table.

"Yep." the young women noticed that she looked slightly stressed.

"Where do you think she goes?" Lensha whispered trying not to arouse the subject matter's attention.

"Maybe she has a part time job?" Viper offered.

"I heard that she works the corners." Gloris stated matter of factly, Lensha and Viper looked at her flabbergasted.

"Where did you hear that from!?" Viper struggled to keep her voice down.

"Here actually, I overheard it in someone's conversation."

"C'mon now I don't think she does that sorta thing." Lensha chimed in.

"Why not? Assuming she's homeless she would need the money and there are some perverts who would pay good money for an 'of age' woman who looks like a teen." Lensha tried not to groan in disgust.

"Glory, think logically for a second. Do you think Crow, a woman who seems to always be in a perpetual state of fear, is actually going to sleep with some random stranger off the streets? She is too nervous to even talk to US and she's been here for what, six weeks now?" She argued.

"I don't know, maybe she's two-faced or something." she looked at Viper with a cheeky grin on her face "If oooonly we could  jus-"

"No, Gloris. I'm not going to let you harass her just because you want to be nosy." Viper said in a stern voice.

"Whoa Whoa whoa, hey, it's not just because I'm nosy. This chick could get herself in serious trouble. She could get STD's, pregnant, jail time or even worse!" she looked serious.

"Someone's going to jail?" Chec asked worryingly, he just happened to be walking by when he over heard their chat/argument.

"Ah, see, Chec's seen some shit." she paused to face the gentle giant "Chec how many people did you know of who where kinda two faced?" Chec hesitated to answer.

"A-a few. You were less likely to be a target if you appeared to be a major threat." he cringed internally as he spoke.

"Yeah, that makes sense but Crow doesn't give off the impression to be intimidating at all. She's the complete opposite!" Viper retorted.

"Exactly! What if she's using reverse psychology?" everyone stared at her in confusion "Think about it! What if she's faking to be all weak and helpless so that if people do target her they won't go all it and then she'll just-" she punched her hand with her fist.

"Gloris, I understand your argument and in theory it makes sense but it doesn't really work like that. When people see someone in the streets who looks weak and they want to take advantage of that, they will. They'll go all in whether your weak or not, it doesn't matter. If you have something that they want or just because you looked at them funny they may just kill you for it without a second thought." his voice shuddered near the end, his eyes where vacant of any feeling when he spoke and the air went stiff. 

"Oh." was her only response.

"Sorry, too much?".

"Nah, your fine darling, thanks." Viper smiled and patted his hand which was resting on the table. "But now that makes me more worried about her now."

"Yeah, but she's been okay for this long, maybe we should just leave her alone?" Lensha spoke.

"Maybe she's okay because I'm right." Gloris pouted.

"You really can't let an argument go can you?" Viper poked her inflated cheek.

"Hey, what'cha all crowded over here for?" Rome asked sauntering through the front door and over to the group with his hands in his pockets.

"We were talking about Crow." Chec informed.

"That's not surprising, everyone seems to be talkin' 'bout her."

"What do you mean?" Viper asked leaning her head on the table.

"Nothin' really, just rumors." he shrugged.

"Like that she's a prostitute?" Gloris pressed.

"Meh, that's one of em but I don't think she is." he took a seat on the opposite side of the table.

"Really? Why?" Viper lifted her head off of the table, her interest now peaked.

"Well, y'all know how I like to go out and go s'plorin'. While I was out near the Plaza I saw the girl goin' east."

"... So?"

"Sooo, if she was a hooker she would go north west towards The Barrens because the cops are too big of pussies to patrol there, duh."

"Of course, cowardly fuckin' cops." she mumbled under her breath.

"That makes sense." Lensha spoke.

"She could be going somewhere else, maybe to a place where people have more money." Gloris mumbled to herself but loud enough that Lensha overheard her.

"Why do you want her to be a prostitute so bad?" she nearly shouted at her.

"I don't, I'm just sayin'." Lensha put her head in her hand.

"God, you and your conspiracy theories. I'm surprised that you don't wear a tin foil cap." 

"Of course I wouldn't! You need an copper or nickel cap." no one said anything and Rome walked away immediately being fed up with the bullshit.

"Anyway." Viper started opting to ignore the conspiracy theorist for now "Let's just leave her be for now, it's not like questioning her would yield any results anyway." she got up and walked towards the kitchen "I'm gonna prepare for lunch, you girls wanna help me out?" 

"Yeah." Lensha got up, Gloris silently did as well.

The volunteers, including Lensha and Gloris dawned their hair nets and aprons with a small light green snake with yellow striped on it. Gloris and Viper thought they were cool while Lensha being afraid of snakes thought other wise. Just after they were done preparing the wave of the hungry homeless crashed through the doors and rushed their way over to them.

Lunch went the same like normal, extremely chaotic for the first half hour or so before calming down dramatically. The wave of the hungry was merely a trickle now as Lensha and the others waited around just in case some late visitors showed up. During this down time she looked among the mass of people before something caught her eyes. It was as if everything around her ceased to exist and time had slowed as she squinted to get a better look at the mass on the floor.

It was Crow sitting in the back all by herself, not even Shadow seemed to be anywhere around. She had her head resting on the wall, her hair now completely covering her face, her arms resting at her side and her legs flat on the ground. She honestly couldn't tell if she was just sleeping or dead she was so still, at least from the distance she was looking at. Even from a distance she could tell that Crow wasn't okay. 

' _She looked better a few days ago, not great but better. What on Earth happened?'_  she thought to herself. She felt something sad tug at her, like an upset child tugging on their parents pants leg.

"Hey, Lena." Gloris tapping on her shoulder brought her back to reality. "Are you alright?" 

"Y-yeah, yeah what's up?" she finally spoke after blinking away the sorrowful feeling.

"We need your help cleaning up." she pointed to the mess of food, various spilled liquids and wrappers behind her. Lensha groaned internally, she really just wanted to check up on Crow but she would feel bad if she didn't pitch in.

"Alright, I'll bee back there in a bit." she turned around and stood on her tip toes reached up to the rope that was connected to the door of the serving window.

"Alright." she wanted to turn around but she knew something was up "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." she said sternly, grabbed the dull red rope and pulled downwards, slamming the door shut and presumably giving some of the food goers a scare.

She helped get the place cleaned as quickly as she could before pulling off her apron and walked speedily towards her. As she got closer she noticed that her head was bobbing as if she was struggling to stay awake. Her clothes had some black and red stains and even more holes than before. Her waist length hair, pales skin and around the collar of her shirt was oddly damp. 

She stopped less than 4 feet away from her but she didn't seem to notice. Her head was facing downwards with one leg bent and the other was stretched out in front of her. She could hear her wheezing and gasping as if it she was having difficulty breathing or trying to catching her breath. She squatted down and bent herself at an odd angle in order to attempt to get a better look at her face.

She was going to ask if everything was alright when suddenly a wall of heated pressure slammed against her body then plow through her. It felt as if a wall was pushing and squishing her against another wall. The center of her chest felt like it was being squeezed and was burning her from the inside out. She tried to ignore the sensation and push herself up only for a bust of stinging pain to shoot through her veins and bring her to her knees clutching her chest. She was now the one wheezing and gasping for air in an attempt to cool down the stinging heat burning her lungs and slowly crawling up her throat. It was as if she had swallowed lit firecrackers that had gotten to the base of her throat before exploding all while someone was pushing her entire body against a wall. She felt sweat drip down and off her face as another burst of nonexistant internal fire singe her throat, causing her to begin coughing and finally catching Crow's attention. 

Crow's breath hitched and she pushed her back flush against the wall. Noticing both the movement and the sudden shift in pressure she tried to move but the pain was still too much. The only thing she could do was look up at Crow with one eye shut in in agony and hope that she would miraculously know what was wrong and how to fix it but she was only met with a face of fear and bewilderment.

Crow's breathing was rapid and shallow and her eyes were wide and bloodshot, the dark circles underneath them extenuated that fact. She had her jaw clenched down so hard that she could see a small vein raised on her temple, her nails were dug into the wall as if she was clinging to a perilous cliff face or else she'd fall to her death. She then screwed her eyes shut and after a few more less hyperventilated breaths she took in a deep breath, held it then exhaled slowly. As she released the breath Lensha closed her eyes as she felt the relief of the burning pressure melting off of her and drag behind her like a weak breeze. She lowered her head and unclenched her hand then brought the other to her chest as she took in slow deep breaths to rid her lungs of the lingering smoldering sensation within her lungs. What had been less than 2 minutes of agony had felt like hours.

She looked back at Crow who had moved over to the left now sitting in an upwards fetal position, her face covered by her knees. When she could move again she slid over to the wall and rested on it to Crow's right. Neither one of them said anything, Lensha was still catching her breath and trying to make sense of what happened. _'Did I just have a heart attack? Heat stroke maybe? No, its fall I'm not gonna have a heat stroke in fall. What was that? God, that hurt. Why am I even over here again?'_

"Arre you Oukey?" she heard a deep accented voice speak.

"Huh?" she wasn't entirely sure if Crow had spoke or if she was going crazy, she doubted it was her since she never spoke useless spoken to.

"N-neverrmind." she turned her head away from her. So it was her speaking. Maybe it was because she rarely heard her speak but she never realized how enchanting her voice was. It sounded like a mix between a Jamaican and ... some other accent. French? Russian, maybe German? She shook her head, she came over here to make sure she was okay not to debate what mix of accents she had! If only she wasn't such a wuss and actually ask already ...

"Um ... are you okay?" she finally asked after a few minutes of tense silence.

"I em fine." she said unconvincingly.

"Are you sure? You didn't look too good while I was walking over here. You look sick." she saw her body tense which made her feel even worse for being so intrusive.

"I seid I em fine!" she hissed her fingers gripping into her ripped jeans. She still didn't believe her but couldn't find the courage to press any further so she just sat there in guilty silence. As she sat there she observed that Crow would dig her nails into her legs randomly and occasionally hiss under her breath.

Being so close to her made her poor condition even more apparent. Along with her matted dirt and what appeared to be red paint covered hair her hands were cut up, the tips of her fingers were blackened even some of her finger nails were missing completely and from the sight of her toothpick thin arms it was apparent that she was emaciated. Her eyes drifted down to her side and she noticed a particularly large rip in her shirt that she was trying to cover up with her other mildly deformed hand. There was more red outlining the rip and even more on her hand.

"Are you hurt?" she got up on her knees and moved closer to get a better look at the possible wound.

"Do nut come near me!" she growled bringing her knees closer to her body.

"Crow I really need to know if you're hurt. I'm serious. I want to help if you are." she didn't reply, instead she just squeezed her side in agitation "Can I at least see it?" she said reaching out to touch her hand before Crow jumped back and bored her bloodshot eyes into her.

"Dun't touch me!" she shouted loudly silencing nearly everyone and causing their attention to shift to them. Noticing the silence Crow looked at the confused crowd then almost immediately adverted her gaze, looking down at the floor beside her. Lensha saw Chec get up from his seat and he began walking over to them with Shadow following him. Crow was pushing against the wall so hard that it looked like she was trying to become one with it. She had her free hand clenched over her chest and stared at him like a cornered animal warning someone to back off. Seeing her distress he stopped a few feet away from them.

"Is everything alright?" Lensha debated whether to tell the truth or not. She glanced over at Crow, even though she was still staring at Chec she could feel her staring at her angrily from the corner of her eye. 

"E-everything's okay..." she said hesitantly. Chec gave her a look that made it clear that he didn't believe her. Shadow galloped over her owner and forced her to move her legs away from her torso with her large paw before plopping down on her. Right as the large dog fell full force onto her lap a yelp of pain ripped from her throat, scaring Shadow and making her stand back up. 

"Are you okay?" Lensha asked with more worry in her voice than before. Crow didn't reply. She bit her lip and put her head back on her knees while Shadow licked her hair apologetically. 

"I know she's heavy but did it hurt that much, did it?" Chec asked crouching down slightly then his attention momentarily shifted to the floor between the too young women "Did one of you spill something?" he pointed at the spot.

"What? No-..." they both stared longingly at the puddle of red then followed its source to Crow.

"Oh my God you're bleeding!" they both shouted simultaneously. Throwing his previous caution to the wind Chec got closer to them and attempted to push her hand out of the way.

"Dun't focking touch me!" she snapped and pushed his hand away, her expression even more animistic than before. 

"Crow, you are bleeding. Pretty badly too. We have bandages, we can hel-"

"I dun't went you're help!" she continued to shout at him, Shadow was getting more riled up along with her owner.

"But you're bleeding!" Lensha argued growing more frantic and frustrated with her stubbornness yet still trying to keep her voice down in order to not bring anymore attention to themselves. "Oh God it's getting everywhere..." she whimpered as she backed away from the puddle rapidly growing.

"It's nothing!" 

"No, its something!" she slammed her open palms on the floor making Crow flinch "We aren't going to hurt you, we just wanna help." she pleaded unknowingly leaning closer to her yet still trying to avoid the blood.

"Fock off!" she grunted as she pushed her away "I dun't went or need you'rre help!" she slowly pulled herself off the floor using the wall as leverage, the action was clearly painful to carry out. Everyone was watching the scene play out and even some of the more sleazy onlookers even took out their 2$ flip phones to record them. At this point Viper had stepped out of her office and into the lobby.

"What the hell is going on out here!? Who's fighting!?" she yelled into the lobby scanning it for the trouble makers.

"Viper!" Chec called her then waved her over. Seeing Crow bleeding she rushed over. 

"Oh my God, what happened!?" she shouted not caring about the audience.

"We don't know she just- I don't know!" she covered her nose from the smell of blood wafting in the air. 

"Get away frrum me!" Crow screeched before pushing off the wall and began speed walking, or rather speed limping, as best she could towards the front doors.

"Where are you- oh shit!" Viper gasped along with everyone else when the injured woman suddenly dropped like a lead weight, her head making a loud thud on the floor. Shadow ran over to her barking and whimpering frantically. "Chec get her and bring her to my office." she said stoically already walking back to the office. Chec of course quickly obliged, he rushed over and scooped her up with no effort. She felt even more weightless in his arms than last time as he and Shadow followed her into the office and. Lensha hesitated to go with but she reluctantly ended up going as well, she could hear people whispering among themselves as she did.

She stood in the hallway and peered into the office. Viper had already laid out a blue blanket and a pillow on the floor next to the wall closest to her. 

"Put her there." she pointed to the spot as she dug through a wardrobe like cabinet. Chec laid her on the floor as gently as possible, as soon as he did Shadow went up to her and began licking her face with little whines coming from her. Finally finding the bandages she went over to them, placed them on the floor next to her and began to lift up her shirt. Chec being a gentleman went exit the office. "Close the door, will ya?" she asked just before he had his other foot out the door. He closed the door on his way out leaving it open a crack and sitting across from her.

It had been awhile since Crow fainted ... again. Lensha sat on the floor, worryingly listening to the sounds of Shadow's whimpering and occasional growls before it went dead silent for awhile. The lobby did eventually went back to its normal volume and mood but in the hallway it was silent and heavy.

"Hey..." Gloris waved nervously as she walked up to the glum comrades. Chec waved weakly back while Lensha didn't say or do anything "I uh, cleaned up the blood back there." still no response other than Lensha tensing up. She sighed and looked over at Chec, "Is she alright? Well, better question is, are you two alright? I mean, you do realize that y'all have been sitting here for almost 6 hours right?" 

"Really?" Chec looked up at her.

"Yeah, really." she reached down and grabbed ahold of his meaty arm and began pulling on it "C'mon, get uuuup y'all've been here foreva." she whined, her Australian accent slipped out making the two laugh a bit. 

"Well, that's rare." Lensha snorted.

"Shut up!" 

"Hey, keep your voice down." he pointed towards the office.

"Oh yeah, sorry. How is she doing anyway?" she asked peaking through the small crack between the door and it's frame. Chec shrugged while Lensha just looked away, she honestly didn't want to think about it anymore. 

Gloris nearly fell into the office when the door was suddenly opened. Viper stood in the doorway looking dumbfounded.

"What are earth are you doing?" she asked playfully.

"I wanted to know how the mystery box was doin'." she admitted.

"She's doing okay, she hasn't woken up though. You guys can go in there if ya want but just be careful if you do. Shadow's guarding her like a ... well, like a guard dog. She even nipped at me a couple times." she showed them the light bite marks on her hand. Chec looked surprised.

"We will." Lensha said already being always into the room, Gloris followed. Chec began to walk in as well when Viper grabbed his are as evident asked on her left.

"Make sure they don't wake her up or do anything stupid for me, okay? Especially Gloris." her eyes where filled with concern as she looked into his, he nodded and she released her firm hold and they went their separate ways.

In the office Lensha and Gloris were trying to maneuver around the guard dog. Shadow wasn't growling but she did have her teeth bared, her lopsided ears pulled back and and had an over all nasty look on her face. Not even Chec could get close to her with out the risk of being bitten.

"Damn, she isn't gonna let us through is she." Gloris spoke sitting on the floor furthest to the left having given up awhile ago.

"Appears so. I've never seen her so ... vicious looking." Chec tried one last time to get close to Crow, Shadow snarled at him and bit his wrist. "Ow! Alright, I give up."

"You okay?" 

"Yes I'm fine, she didn't bite down too hard but thanks Gloris. "

Lensha sat in between them looking between the canine and her owner. She had even more questions than before being but one in particular was bugging her...

"Hey guys..." she started to get their attention "how do you think she got injured?" she said with her eyes still on Crow and her protector.

"Huh, I don't know. Personally my question is, how did she managed to hide her injury for so long but we should really take this on one question at a time." Chec asked in return.

"Maybe she got into a fight, you did say that she's an easy target." the conspiracy theorist put in her two cents.

"Yes I did but something still bothers me."

"What?" 

"Look how protective Shadow is of her around us. She even bit me and I've been around her the most besides Crow. I think it's safe to say she would give her life to protect her but she doesn't seem to have any injuries.

"Ohhh good point." she hummed to herself in thought "Maybe she hurt herself?"

"That's possible..." silence broke out between them, all of them getting caught up in their thoughts. So caught up in fact that they didn't notice Shadow staring at the door on full alert. It was only when she started growling that they were pulled out of their heads. Her face looked even more nasty than before and even the fur on her back standing up. Chec silently got up and looked out the door and into the lobby. 

"What's out there?" Gloris groaned getting annoyed by the whole situation.

"Nothing, just some volunteer's and a woman in a dark dress ... wearing a mask?"

"Really?" she got up excitedly and looked outside with him "You weren't kidding ... why is she just standing there?" she groaned in disappointment. 

At that moment Lensha felt the pressure that she felt before but instead of being a wave like last time it felt like a beam of sorts and oddly enough there wasn't any heat. She ignored the pressure and made a mental note to make an appointment with her doctor about it. Then an instense and heavy feeling dread sunk into her and she felt as if she was being watched. She squirmed in her position on the floor as the dread got stronger and she began to feel more uncomfortable. The dread was so strong that even Crow felt causing her to toss and turn in her unconscious state.

"H-Hey do you guys feel- feel like your being watched?" she stuttered as she felt a chill run up her spine.

"No, there's only us. Why, do you?" Gloris asked still staring out the door.

"N-no..." Chec turned around and gave her a worried look.

"What's wro-" he was cut off by Crow suddenly gasping loudly and sitting up her eyes were wide and filled with fear. She was sweating like crazy and was hyperventilating. She was looking around as if she was frantically looking for something.

"Whoa, hey its okay! You're safe! You're in the office, everything fine!" Lensha attempted to calm her down after sliding closer to her. Her distressed words fell on deaf ears, possibly because Shadow was now barking like she had gone mad. Crow clutched her chest and began pushing herself off the floor. Lensha attempted to push her back down but she elbowed her in the chest and ran towards the door. She was going to leave but Chec and Gloris blocked her way. 

"Crow, can you hear me? It's okay, you're fine, everything is alright." Chec cooed softly but she only became more frantic.

"Shinka, utherryo!" she shouted pointing at him. Before he could even think _'What did she just say?'_ Shadow launched at him like a bullet and chomped down onto his leg. He let out a deafening scream before dropping to the floor. Gloris jumped out of the way as the frightened duo charged past her and into the lobby. She then watched in stunned silence as she saw her begin to run towards the front doors before turning and running in the oppisite direction after seeing the woman. The woman herself, who hadn't moved from her spot in the center of the lobby, then charged at her so quickly that she appeared to be flying. Shadow was barking and clawing at the back grey exit door, Crow having no where else to go pushed the door open and ran into the night with the woman hot on her trail.

"What happened!" Viper shouted as she ran out of the kitchen and towards the office.

"Crow woke up a-and she was chased out by the creepy woman and-and-" Gloris made a strange wheezing noise like dried laughter. Viper gave her a strange look before a groan from the newly injured Chec alerted her.

"Oh shit what happened to you!? " she shouted crouching down and trying to look at his leg.

"Shadow bit my leg." he hissed as he released his leg to let her pull up his pant leg to get a better look at the wound.

"Damn, she got you good." she got up and went to the wardrobe-cabinet walking past Lensha "Are you okay, Lensha? Please tell me nothing is bleeding cus' I'm gonna run out of bandages at this rate." she asked as she dug into the wardrobe for more bandages.

"No I'm fine she just elbowed my chest." she touched her chest then flinched, the lightest of touches made the pain spread. Viper walked back passed her.

"You sure?" she asked while walking back to CheChec and kneeling down to wrap his wound. 

"Yeah.." 

"Let's put this on ya' for now. Your wound is pretty deep and you might need stitches or something.." she said after patching him up and helping him off of the ground with Gloris' assistance. "You mind helping taking em' to the cot room?"

"Nope." 

"Great." she was already at the phone dialing the police "I'm gonna call the cops and-"

"I'm gonna go look for her." Lensha stated bluntly. Everyone looked at her as if she was joking but one look into her eyes told them that she was completely serious. It could just be the pain from Crow's assault but she felt something ... odd. It was as if the heat from a few hours ago had turned into an intense icy chill and the pressure was a lot less constricting but she still felt the dread. It almost felt as though she was not herself controlling her thoughts or moments.

"What, no, Lensha you're not going anywhere near them. That woman was chasing her like she wanted to kill her!" Viper tried to reason with her.

"Yeah, besides what are you going to do?" Gloris added, her only response was to grab an iron bat Viper had hidden behind the wardrobe and proceed to leave the building through the back door.

"Lensha where in the hell-! Ah, yes h-hello operator...?" Gloris and Chec gave her odd looks, she threw her hand in the air, her hands were tied. Gloris looked anxious.

"I can get to the cot room on my own, go get her." he instructed while removing her arm from around his shoulders.

"If you say so, thanks!" she did a salute before she too ran out the door. He didn't really understand why she thanked him but that was the least of his concerns as he limped to the cot room.

Outside Lensha's body was on auto-pilot as she followed an invisible trail. She couldn't see or smell whatever her body was following but she could feel the pressure building up, the heat return and the dread increase the further she went down the trail. She had run a few blocks at this point in time and the pressure along with the already present pain in her chest made it excruciating to continue, but she couldn't stop. She couldn't explain it, she couldn't explain any of this. She had no control of her body or mind, the only thing she seemed to have even some minor control of was her emotions and the only thing she was feeling was fear and oddly enough curiosity. She felt as though there was a light at the end of this dark, twisted, dreadful tunnel, as if a small voice in the back of her head was telling her _'If you continue, you'll find answers'._ Then again its not like she had much of a choice anyway.

She unknowingly look to her right and at that very moment Crow was cautiously walking out of an alleyway, clutching her side with Shadow following closely behind her. The woman didn't appear to be anywhere around. 

"Crow!" she shouted from across the street suddenly gaining control of her body and being able to run across the street. Crow took a step back into the alley and Shadow walked in front of her head hung low, white teeth bared and a low rumble coming from her. Lensha stood a few feet back "Where's the woman?" she didn't say anything but she appeared to be scrutinizing her. "Crow we need to go back to the shelter. Viper called the police ... you'll be safe." again she didn't respond, she only shook her head in disbelief and took a few more steps backwards further into the alley, if it wasn't for the glow of a nearby street light she wouldn't have been able to see her in the darkness.

"This ... this isn't something the police can handle." she said meekly while twiddling her hands and staring at her feet. Before she could ask why Shadow turned around and began barking and snarling like she had never heard a dog sound before. She appeared to be staring at something behind her owner. 

Crow looked behind her and was met with a cloth of darkness purple rapidly folding around her.

She bolted out of the alley just as the cloth fell and dissipated, leaving a purple fog in its wake. "Run! Go!" She pushed Lensha out into the street and they bolted back across. Lensha started running back towards the shelter but Crow was running further up the street in the opposite direction. She of course began following her.

As she was catching up to her the feeling of dread made itself known by acting like a weight in her chest. She looked to her right and saw a fast moving cloud of darkness closing in on them from the side. 

"Crow!" she managed to croak through her tired gasps. Crow looked behind her before diving into the bushes on the left. The cloud followed her in while Lensha jumped in the bushes a few feet behind them.

Beyond the bushes was a decent sized forest, she had been here before a few times in fact but she was not in the mood for reminiscing. 

She could have sworn the ground was shaking beneath her but it could also be the adrenaline making her go crazy. She began to trek thru the woods and after awhile of pushing tree limbs out of the way, climbing over overgrown roots, tripping on a few rocks she could hear noises coming from her left and further into the forest. She headed in that direction on a well worn path.

The longer she walked the further the more exhausted she got. Not from physical exhausted, not even emotionally, it was a type of exhaustion she had never felt before. The only way she could describe it as something inside her was shriveling up and disappearing into a void leaving her feeling emptier than before. She heard a loud crack followed by a crash of a tree falling in the distance. She griped the handle of the bat as she ran in the direction of the sound. She heard and animistic roar before a tree flew just a couple of feet from her face. She stopped. Her logic was returning and overriding whatever invisible force it was making her move without her input.

"W-what is going on..." she looked at the thrown tree that was now broken in two on the ground "That's impossible ... I'm going back. This ... this isn't-" her inner debate was silenced as a scream came from just ahead and without thinking she ran towards the noise. She felt her mussels tense as she got closer and closer to the miscellaneous noises. The sights of trees with chunks missing from them, fallen limbs and trees and chunks of ground risen up from the earth was nothing but a blur as she knocked down the vegetation preventing her advancement. Once her path was clear she heard another scream and charged deeper into the forest and ended up coming across a clearing were the women were currently in a pause in their chase. 

Crow was on her left clutching her side, partially keeled to the ground clearly exhausted and in pain. On her right the masked woman was ... floating? Oh God she's actually floating. She was hovering in mid air her arms extended on either side of her, dark smoke obscuring the lower half of her body and snakeing around her hands. They were all surrounded by damaged trees, ripped up earth and the smell of blood permeated the air.

The masked woman trusted her right hand forward with her fingers curled slightly and the cloud that surrounded her lower half shot forward taking the form of a giant jagged tooth mouth heading right for Crow. Before the mouth could take a bite out of her a wall of thorny vines shot up from the ground in front of her, the mouth collide with it at impossible speeds causing it to disperse on impact with a hiss. The woman grunted then two large dark purple hands then appeared from the shadows and began dismantling it manually, ripping the vines away like a child ripping worms from the ground.

The space that Crow once occupied was now empty when the wall was finally dismantled. The woman made an odd sound of what sounded like disgust and she looked around the small battle field for her opponent. She flew around the makeshift arena looking behind trees, bushes and occasional cutting down trees with one swing of her arm and a burst of dark purple. Lensha stayed ducked down behind some bushes and hoped that she wouldn't somehow hear her pounding heartbeat as she began floating right towards her, a strange echoey heavy breathing sound was emanating from behind the white, black eyed deer mask. She ducked further into the bushes as the woman brought up her hand, heavy purple smoke swirling around it completely obscuring it. She cocked her hand back as if she was going to cut the bushes along with Lensha down in a fit of anger like she did with the trees. All she could do was put the bat over her head and curl up in the smallest ball she possibly could. She held her breath as she braced for at best injury but hoping for a miracle. Luckily she got one.

A sound from the far left distracted the woman, the smoke faded from around her hand and she went to investigate the noise. She continued to hold her breath as she peaked through the leaves and watched as she 'searched' the bushes by angrily cutting them in half with the dark purple force. She floated downwards and looked over the bushes and into the surrounding forest, her hand lifted her hand readying another attack. A loud cracking sound came from the other side of the arena as two thornless vines shot out from behind the surrounding bushes, wrapped themselves around her neck and pulled her backwards onto the ground. Two thorny vines then emerged from the ground next to her and twisted themselves around her ankles, then two more pinned her hands that desperately tried to remove the vines from around her neck. The woman choked and thrashed against her restraints, pushing her bare feet into the damaged earth and arching her body upwards causing the thorns to pierce her flesh but she either didn't care or didn't notice. The smell of blood was intolerable at this point.

Rustling from Crow limping out of the bushes did not distract the woman from her struggle, instead she fought even harder. She was limping towards Lensha still clutching her side, she's pretty sure she didn't see her but was instead was going to follow the old path out of the unfamiliar forest. The woman let out a growl when she managed to turn on her side making the thorns dig in deeper and drag though her flesh. Breaking the vine on her right arm, she raised her arm up and Crow's shadow began to expand and rise up. Crow lifted her hand and a tree bent downward allowing her to grab one of the branches as it went back to normal position just as the shadow collapsed in on itself. 

The woman managed to break the remaining vines, she then made a slicing motion with her hand and cut the tree in half. Crow jumped to another tree just as it was falling and with an outstretched hand and a closed fist, at least 4 thornless vines came out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the falling tree, catching it. Crow pushed her left hand into the air and sharp ended roots began shooting out of the ground. They followed the woman as she jumped in every which way dodging all of the roots before getting corned by a series of roots that formed a cage around her. The woman began cutting down the thick and sturdy roots one by one but only managing to cut down a few of them when she noticed the shadow looming over her. Both her and Lensha looked up to see Crow with both of her hands in the air, her palms facing towards each other and her fingers curled. She was sweating and her whole body was shaking as if she was struggling to hold something up. Maybe it was the giant half oak the vines were lifting into the air.

With a drawn out scream she threw her hands downward and uncurled her fingers, the vines copied her movements exactly and they released the great oak. The woman swiftly made a shield of dark purple above her head but tree was too large and moving already moving at too great of speed for the shield to even slow it down. The tree collided with the shield, turning it to smoke on impact, then cage make a loud snap as the side of the tree then crushed the ceiling. As the tree fell on the woman and crushed her body a force that was felt for miles shook the ground and the shook great oaks.

All was silent besides her heart pounding in her ears and Crow's labored breathes. 2 thornless vines rose from the ground and grabbed her by the abdomen before gently putting her on the ground and returning to the dirt. Crow being unable to carry her self dropped to her knees and stared with tired eyes at the weaponized tree she then looked around the damaged land, taking in all the destruction they had caused. She then closed her eyes and faced the sky,

"K'am meyran." she wheezed before she took in one more deep breath then collapsed. 

Barking, Shadow bolted out of the bushes a few feet away from Lensha on her left and was at her owner's side in seconds. Lensha stumbled out of the brush as well and began to cautiously approach them. Shadow did not attempt to attack her instead she moved off to the side with her head hanging low in submission. She dropped to her knees and began shaking Crow,

"Crow, Crow! Wake up, come on! Please!" she didn't move, her previous wound was bleeding profusely. She ripped off some fabric from her pants and held it firmly to the bleeding area as she used her other hand to fish her phone from her pocket and began to call an ambulance. Shadow began barking suddenly making her jump and causing her to drop her phone. She turned around to see what she was throwing a fit about, Shadow was at alert barking in the direction she had come from. She struggled to hear what she was apparently hearing.

"Lensha!? Myster- fuck, I mean Crow! I hear the dog, where are you guys!?" she heard Gloris shout amount the barking.

"Gloris! We're over here." she called back.

"I'm comin' to you, stay put buddy." She headed the sound of racing footsteps and twigs snapping the followed by rustling as Gloris fell into the clearing on her stomach. "Whoa ... what happened here?" she said in wonder, the pain being under minded by curiosity.

"There's no time for that, she bleeding!" she shouted with a hint of irritation in her voice.

"Again!?" she scrambled to her feet and ran towards them "We need to get her back to the shelter, we're not to far away."

"Alright, I got her arms you got her legs right." Gloris nodded and grabbed a firm hold of her legs "Lift on 3. 1, 2, 3, up." they lifted her quite easily off of the ground, she was so light-weight that it was scary. "Go." she commanded Gloris who was a bit shocked by how easily they could lift her.

Back at the shelter paramedics were patching up Chec. Turns out he didn't need stitches but he was told to be gentle with that leg for awhile. The police were questioning Viper, again, along with Chec and the volunteers. Apparently not many people saw too much of what happened, most of which only saw the woman chase Crow out of the building. The police were getting clearly frustrated with both the lack of leads and having been called to the shelter multiple times and having to deal with Viper's passive aggressive attitude but at least she was a lot more cooperative this time around.

"So you ... Mr.Wolf?" a male officer questioned.

"Vowlf." Chec corrected.

"Yes, Vowlf, my apologies. You along with two women actually saw the masked woman woman chase Ms.Crow out of the building?"

"Yes."

"And where are they so that I may questioning them?"

"Well, they wen-" the whole room went silent as Shadow  run up to the door and began barking hysterically and running around in circles. Viper opened the door but she only continued to run around in circles only stopping on occasion to look up the street. Confused Viper looked up the street and saw what Shadow was so frantic about.

"Their back and ... why is Gloris walking backwards?" she thought aloud not being able to see their cargo from her angle "Hey! What happened!? Where's Crow!?"

"Viper! We-we have Crow, she's bleeding and needs help!" Lensha shouted as they got up to the door.

"Who's bleeding?" one of the paramedics asked. The two rescuers lifted her up with snide looks on their faces, by the look on his face the paramedic seemed to notice how stupid his question was "Please put her on the table right here." they did as they were told and stepped away for them to do their job.

"Excuse me?" a male officer walked up to them, notepad in hand "May I ask some questions?" Gloris shrugged and Lensha nodded. "What happened before Ms.Crow was chased out by the masked woman.

"Well ... Crow was already bleeding so I went up to her asked her what was wrong, she got upset, passed out then-" Lensha got a look at her hands and noticed that her hands were covered in blood. Actually most of her abdomen and lower body was covered in blood. The corners of her sight began to blur as she began to sway side to side, she felt bile burn the back of her throat. "E-excuse me..." she walked wobbly to the bathrooms.

"Is she okay?" the officer asked.

"Oh, yeah she's fine. The sight of blood just makes her sick to her stomach!" Gloris replied almost cheerfully with blood all over her hands and clothes as well, the officer gave her an odd look before continuing with the interrogation. His job is more important than the strangeness of a witness.

After about half an hour of relentless vomiting Lensha finally emerged from the bathroom to a now empty lobby. All the cops were gone, the evening volunteers had gone home and Crow was no longer on the table. She was curious to where Crow and the others had gone but she was too tired to really look for them, she just wanted to go home.

"Yo." Gloris called out from behind her while walking out of the cot room. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, still a bit nauseous though. Is she okay?" 

"Yep! The color is already coming back to her face." Gloris gave her a thumbs up causing her to smile weakly in return.

"You ready to go, I wanna go home..."

"You go ahead, I'm gonna take the bus home."

"What...? Wait, why? I can just take you home." she motioned confusingly towards the door.

"Dude, you just had a barfing fit for half an hour I'm not gonna make you drive me home after that." she chuckled "Just go home, drink a bunch of water and rest up, I'll call you when I get home, okay?" 

"Okay." she sighed, she really didn't feel like arguing "But seriously, call me or text me, don't forget." she said sternly.

"I won't, I won't, I promise." Gloris made a shooing motion. Lensha walked backwards towards the door while making the 'I'm watching you motion' like some creepy person. She, along with Gloris eventually got home safely.

And Gloris forgot to call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't like this chapter a whole bunch but I don't really know how else to write it. X_X
> 
> Words before chaper: 25,139


	6. Curiosity and Discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lensha and Chec want to get to know Crow a little more.  
> But Lensha is only left with more questions than she had before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WAAAH! I am so sorry I have updated in a whole MONTH D8! I won't lie I got lazy. I have had little to no motivation to type or really do anything, I was just tired I guess, idk. I have had this chapter about half done for the last month and this weekend I was listening to some awesome music compilations and I just felt motivated to finish this all of a sudden! I guess calm music is my motivation, I gotta keep that in mind. Anyway thanks you for your patience and I will try to do better. -w-;
> 
> Here are the links to the music that motivated me in case y'all are curious! Maybe you'll get some motivation too?  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUQyJ4bX7vw  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHYZOeuAHuY

The next morning Chec was the first to wake up to the sounds of soft snores and heavy breathing that broke the otherwise silent air. He got up and peaked though the blinds above his head and saw that it was sometime after dawn. He looked over to the clock hanging over the door but couldn't see the numbers through the darkness. So he laid back on his cot and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for either morning to come or for him too get too tired to stay awake.

He rolled onto his left and stared at the cot draped with a light blue blanket with a slight bulge in it, the cot Crow had slept in. He had slept in the cot next to her so he could keep an eye on her. Unlike last time however he did actually managed to get a decent amount of sleep before waking up early in the morning for no apparent reason; then again its not like him waking up for no reason is uncommon. He thought he might as well check up on their new resident since he's already up. He swung his legs over the cot and got up ever so slowly in order to keep the metal parts of it from creaking and disturbing anyone. Once he was up it only took one quiet step to the parallel cot in which he carefully lifted the blanket off of what he assumed to be her head. Instead of being met with her off-color hair or her face in her place was a small mound empty tortilla chips bags. 

"What...?" he whispered confusingly to himself then he pulled the rest of the blanket off in one swift motion. Sure enough Crow's sleeping body was replaced by a small mountain tortilla chips bags. Keeping as calm as he possibl could he went over to every occupied cot and checked them while occasionally calling out for Shadow; since where ever Shadow was Crow was not too far off and visa-versa. His wide frame along with his injured leg made it difficult to quietly navigate the narrow space between each cot but he mqnaged. After he searched all the cots he came to the conclusion that neither Crow or Shadow were in the room. Confused and tired he went over to where Rome normally slept and tried shaking him awake.

"Rome. Rome wake up." he whispered, the sleeping hot head mumbled something along the lines of 'Don't touch me' before rolling over. Sometimes he forgets how heavy of a sleeper the lightweight actually was. He bent down close to his war and whispered in a deep voice "Hey, I heard Viper left some Apple Pucks in the cafeteria~." Rome snorted startling him as he sat up still half asleep looking for the nonexistent desert.

"Where! Who, wha- ... aw, it's just you." he said in disappointment when he met Chec's shit eating grin. "That's just dirty." he grumbled.

"Yes, I know and I'm sorry but it's the easiest way to get you up." Chec smiled.

"Yeah, whatever. Whaddya want anyway? You shouldn't be walking around with you leg being all fucked up." he signed as he rubbed his eye.

"That I am also aware of but that doesn't matter right now, Crow is gone." Rome looked at him in irritation.

"Bullshit."

"I'm not lying, come see for yourself." Chec waved his hand in the direction of her cot, he begrudgingly went over to it. There it was proven that the occasional prankster was not lying at all.

"Why the hell are there so many bags here? And what the _fuck_ is up with this girl? She's always doing some weird shit." he groaned as he slid his hands down his face.

"She is an odd character I must admit." Chec sighed stroking his goatee.

"How the hell did she even get all these chips anyway?" he hissed through his clenched teeth.

"Good question." he walked over to the open doorway that lead into the lobby "Wanna find out?" Rome stared at him silently cursing to himself.

"Fine!" he marched over to him "And wipe that stupid grin off your face cus' this ain't funny!" he poked his chest before marching into the lobby. Despite his small hissy fit he was right, it wasn't funny. Crow was still injured and missing but at least Rome's reaction lighted his mood somewhat.

The armature Sherlock duo went out into search around the lobby for her when Lensha and Viper walked through the door.

"You two are up early." Lensha said in surprise.

"Good morning, ladies. And I could say the same for you, Lensha." Chec mused. Viper didn't reply to his good morning like she normally did, she seemed distracted by something.

"Yeah I ... couldn't sleep ... and the bakery was gonna be closed today anyway since the ovens are still broken so I thought I would come here." she shrugged, Chec couldn't help but to notice the nervous and tired look on her face. "What are you two doing up?" she noticed that he noticed.

"We're looking for the weird chick." Rome scowled.

"What!? What ha-" 

"Hey, did one of you go into the kitchen...?" Viper interrupted.

"No." Rome and Chec said in unison.

"Why? What's up?" Rome asked slinking towards her, Viper pushed open the normally locked door with her foot.

"It was cracked open." she said glaring into the pitch black kitchen suspiciously.

"Well, figured out where she got the chips." Rome sighed.

"Chips?" 

"Yeah, her cot was filled with empty chip bags covered by a blanket." he explained.

"What the actual fuck...?" she turned to him with a baffled expression on her face "Wait, how would she be able to get in there in the first place? I lock it up before I leave and they'res only two keys, the one I have and the hidden one that only you three along with a couple others know about." everyone shrugged, they were just as confused as her. "Ugh, I'ma see how much she took." she groaned and flipped on the light switch to the kitchen and she marched inside. The wannabe investigators followed in after her while Lensha stayed in the lobby.

Inside the now well lit kitchen nothing appeared to be out of place. All the knives her in their blocks, other tools were in their proper drawers, everything was just how Viper left it the other night. Just to be sure she along with Chec searched around more thoroughly while Rome leaned on the wall next to the pantry door. He had long since lost interest in searching any longer but a strange sound was beginning to bother him. He had noticed it when they first walked in but no one else seemed to be aware of it, so he kept quiet thinking he was just hearing things. Maybe it was the fact that he was woken up so early in the morning but he could have sworn the nonexistent sound was getting louder. He would kill to just go back to bed but he stayed, just in case either of them needed some help or something. Eventually after awhile of watching in order to distract himself Chec went to open the pantry but he paused before grabbing the handle.

"Did you look in here already?" he whispered quietly.

"No and why are you whispering so damn softly?"

"The light is on and I know Viper is too particular in order for her to leave the light on over night..." Rome raised a brow, he didn't need to speak seeing that they both were thinking the same thing. "If she's in here she might try to run, so can you stand in the pathway and make sure she doesn't leave?" he sighed, he was hoping he wouldn't actually have to do anything but at least it gave the hour or so of lost sleep some worth. He pushed off the wall with his foot and stood haphazardly in the pathway.

"What are you two up to?" Viper asked walking over to them, they could tell by the way her lips were pursed that Rome wasn't the only one in a sour mood "You found something outta place?"

"Yes, the light in the pantry is o-" there was a soft click and the sound that Rome had been hearing had ceased. "On ..."

"Open it." Viper demand as she stood on his left. Chec took another look at Rome, making sure he was ready, then slowly opened the door. 

When the door was opened as wide as it could go a hand shot towards him and random vegetables and fruit began flying at him. Including lettuce leaves that acted more sharp frisbee's, they cut the side of his exposed neck and effortlessly cut through his thick sweater before he stumbled backwards in fright and fell to the ground. A light colored blur along with a shorter black blur rushed out of the pantry and slammed straight into Rome. He grabbed the mystery person by what he assumed to be their shoulders then immediately fell a swift force punch his gut causing him to bend over in pain and nearly throw up, but he did not release his grip. He looked up and his eyes met with Crow's surprised face; or as surprised as her sleepy expression could convey.

"Crow, what are you doing!?" Viper whispered loudly, once again struggling to keep her voice down. She turned around and looked her with a similar expression but she did not speak. Shadow was walking anxiously around in circles in the center of them not knowing what to do or what was really happening. Crow pushed herself backwards and escaped Rome's grip but ended up stumbling backwards, tripping over Shadow and falling back first into Chec's sturdy body just as he stood up. As soon as she regained her balance she jumped off of him and took on a defensive stance while giving him an annoyed look, a low growl was coming from her.

"You did it again..." a meek voice stated from the doorway, everyone turned and looked at a wide eyed Lensha who had refused to step inside the kitchen. Crow's annoyed expression shifted to one of terror. "You made things move without even touching them..."

"Yeah, what was up with that? Some sort of trap so you could run away~." Rome teased.

"No." she said flatly finally stepping into the kitchen "She can move things, she can even make things appear. I saw it, when she fought the woman.".

"You two fought the woman?!" Viper asked.

"No. She did, I watched. She and her ... they ... they could create and manipulate the environment around them! Crow used vines and trees and the woman used smoke and shadows! And then ... you did it again, so that wasn't a dream after all." she leaned against the door frame as her sleep deprivation began to make her light headed.

"Crow, is this true?" Chec looked over to her and she had pressed herself against the wall. She was stuttering softly and looked like she was facing death.

"No, no, no, sweetheart its okay! It's alright!" Viper's sour mood shifted seeing that she was on the verge of another freakout. Without moving from her spot next to Chec she crouched down to be at a closer eye level with the terrified girl. "You don't have to be scared, we're just curious." she looked around to all of them looking for backup reassurance "Right guys?"

"Right." Chec and Lensha nodded, Rome once again just shrugged. She rolled her eyes and continued on,

"See? None of us are angry or anything, we just wanna know how ya did it, that's all." she smiled warmly at her, her fearful expression softened somewhat but she was still shaking and did not respond. Defeated, she got up from her crouching position and turned to whisper to Chec "What now?" he shook his head not knowing what to do either.

Unexpectedly Shadow whined and walked over to the conversing pair, Crow reached out as she left her side. She walked up to them, stared up at them for a few seconds before her tongue lolled out of her mouth and she rubbed her large body against her legs, similar to a cat, she then stood in front of them, staring straight at her owner, tail wagging happily. Hyperventilating, Crow slowly retracted her arm, cupped her hands around her mouth and shut her eyes as she tried to gain control of her breathing. Shadow's tail dropped as she trotted back over to her owner and began licking her hair.

Lensha felt a familiar pressure on her chest, there wasn't any heat instead she just felt and oddly cold emptiness. She suddenly felt guilty for losing her composure and scaring Crow or maybe it was for lying earlier saying that she came early because the ovens were still broken. They had actually gotten fixed much later yesterday but she called in sick, not only did she want to question Crow but she also felt if she went to work as tired as she was she might royally screw something up. Sure, it was a bit of a stupid reason but she still had vacation days left so it wasn't too much of a big deal. She hadn't slept at all the other night, the memories of the fight replying in an infinite loop in her head combined with questions if what she saw was even real or not had her more jittery and a two year old with coffee. Like Viper had said she wasn't angry, no one was, she was more curious than anything. This was something she was always told was fictional, it could never happen in real life. No human could turn regular shadows into giant killer jaws or claw-like hands, no human could summon a wall of thorns or make a tree act like rubber. Impossible! But she saw it. They all saw it. They may not have seen what she saw the other night but they saw something, they saw only a fraction of what this girl could do! Despite her exhaustion curiosity and wonder kept her awake, both last night and at this very moment.

But she still felt like an ass.

"Crow ... I'm sorry. This is my fault I shouldn't have acted like that, if you don't want to-"

"Ugh, will you get a grip already?" Rome groaned.

"What?" Lensha hissed.

"Not you, her!" he pointed downward at Crow "What ya cryin' for? What are ya scared of? These people haven't done nothin' to ya other than give their up most hospitality yet you're still scared? Of what!?" he was losing his temper.

"Rome-" Chec tried to intervene while also holding Viper back who was rolling up her grey sweater sleeve in preparation to punch Rome straight to the moon.

"No!" he snapped at his former sleuth partner then crouched down and got uncomfortably close to her. She didn't look up at him but she leaned away from the hostility radiating off of him "What you scared of, huh? That we're gonna hurt ya, huh!?" he whispered maniacally, "If they wanted to hurt ya they would have done so when you were fucking unconscious! Or me when I kept wakin' up to check up on your sorry ass through out the night! But we didn't motherfucker, Viper patched you up and I took my tired ass back to bed. We've been so damn nice to you so the LEAST you could do is how you set that damned trap or whatever it was!" he barked.

"Rome that enough!" Chec whispered loudly, also struggling to keep his voice in check. Huffing and puffing he got off the floor and resumed his position leaning on the wall, he was gripping his arms in frustration and mumbling curses under his breath. 

For a few seconds the room was fairly silent, Chec was trying to figure out what to do next, Lensha was self-loathing, Rome was pouting and Viper was in stunned silence.

"I am sorry." Crow spoke up suddenly, wiping her face. She then stood up, placed a hand on the left side of her chest and bowed "You are not threatening towards me and you show no bad will. If you really wanted to harm me you would have so already." she push some hair out of her face allowing them to see that she was still avoiding their gazes. "Have you ever heard of witches...?" she suddenly changed the subject.

"Witches ... like from story books?" Viper questioned.

"Uhm ... sure? I do not know how your stories go but I am an actual witch. No fairy-tale. I have been bornded with the ability to manipulate nature. For example this ... red, er, past consumable." she out pushed towards then pulled back a partially clenched hand at the remnants of a tomato she threw earlier. The flattened fruit peeled off the wall and collected into a floating mass like something from a science fiction movie and floated over to her "I can manipulate it because it is an organic, yes? It is from nature."

"Its called a tomato, sweetheart." Viper chuckled. Crow looked confusingly between the mass of semi-liquid floating tomato and Viper a couple of times before merely replying with,

"Yes."

"What about those vines? I've never seen vines like that before." Lensha spoke up.

"I can create things out of natural materials, like minerals, and turn them into other similar looking parts of nature for fighting purposes."

"Huh..." was all she could reply with. Once again a pause of silence overtook them as they just stood there stiffly and awkwardly.

"I know this probably has nothing to do with you being a witch but what happened to your wound." Chec pointed at the gaping hole in her shirt where her wound had once been.

"Everything has a place in nature, that includes blood. I used my majic in order to heal myself."

"Well, why didn't you just do that in the first place!" Rome argued.

"I could not. I had no energy, I was drained and weakened." she explained, still avoiding all of their gazes. Rome stared at her in confusion before throwing his hands up in the air in surrender.

"Welp, I'm going to back to bed. I'm done." Rome proclaimed, then he did just as he said and went back into the cot room leaving everyone else to continue their awkwardness; he was too tired to care anymore.

Soon after the other volunteers began walking through the door and began calling for Viper in order to give them instructions on what they were to do for the morning. Realizing what time it was Viper switched to management mode.

 "Alright, out of my kitchen. Everyone should wake up soon and I need to get prepared and all that so shoo." she made a 'shooing' motion with her hands as she chased the awkward two, and Shadow, out. Crow dropped the floating liquefied tomato into a garbage can before she and Chec left and Lensha stayed behind in order to help with the preparations but she had so many questions that it made her dizzy.

"Hey." Viper called after giving fellow volunteers instructions on what they were to do "You look like shit."

"Heeeh ... thanks." she sighed in reply.

"Sorry, bad habit. But seriously you don't look good. Did you have another bad night?"

"Yeah ... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come here like this..."

"No, its fine, I understand, I mean its not like I'm paying you or anything." she laughed.

"True." she chuckled weakly "Do you mind if I still loiter about? I can help you later if you're willing to have me."

"No problem, I think the two lug nuts would probably enjoy you're company. Just make sure you get some rest when you can alright?" Lensha nodded then Viper made a playful shooing motion at her before being pulled to the side by a volunteer. She went into the now dimly lit lobby and saw Chec and Crow sitting on opposite sides of a cafeteria table closest to the serving window near the wall, while groggy people began shuffling out of the cot room and went about their day. She decided to join them, she knew she wouldn't offer much to the conversation, if there even was one, but she was still willing to listen. 

"Hey, mind if I join you guys?" she asked as she walked up to the table, Chec shook his head and Crow continued petting Shadow who's front half was in her lap and didn't respond.

"You're not going to help prepare for the morning?" he asked as she sat next to him.

"No, I'm not feeling too great so Viper said I could sit out."

"Really? Shouldn't you go home and get some rest then?"

"Yeah, but I'll be fine. I wanna learn a bit more about our new resident." she smiled curiously at her causing her to shrink in on herself. She could still feel Chec staring her down with worry, she sighed and looked up at him "I'm fine, Chec. Honest." she tried to reassure him, he stopped staring her down but she could tell he still wasn't sold.

"So, Crow, do you mind if we ask you some questions?" he asked, Crow stopped stroking Shadow's head and squinted at him suspicion.

"Why?" she asked bluntly.

"Because we wanna get to you, why not?" her suspicious gaze did not waver instead she began leaning away from them.

"...Why?"

"B ... because we're friends and we want to know more about you?" the air around them went cold as Crow's dead heartless stare bored straight through her being, she could even feel goose bumps rising on her arms and the hairs on the back of her next stiffen.

"...Why...?" Lensha gripped the table in irritation.

"Well aren't you philosophical." Chec spoke with a uncharacteristically snide grin on his face, neither of the young women knew if he was making a joke or was being genuine.

"I was raised to question what I am told." she said without thinking.

"I'm glad that you do, 'Asked questions is gained wisdom', that's what I was told." her face lit up then turned to one of solemn.

"That is what my father always told me..."

"Oh? Was your father a wise man?" Chec asked almost passive aggressively as he leaned on the table.

"Yes, he is well versed in magic." he seemed surprised at her answer as he chuckled awkwardly.

"Oh ...Did he ... teach you how to use majic or did you learn on you're own?" his passive aggressive demeanor seemed to fade somewhat.

"A little bit of both I guess, but he did teach me some things ..." she sighed mournfully, her head hung in sorrow. Chec didn't speak any further.

"Um ... what kind of magic do you know?" Lensha asked hesitantly, Crow seemed to perk up a bit. 

"I am nature witch so I can control and manipulate gihala and nature."

"Gihala?" he repeated skeptically.

"Yes, the purest elements of nature. Anything that has been created and molded by nature and humans had no part in its birth." the interrogators stared at her in confusion.

"How exactly would that work if you don't mind explaining." Chec asked with a hint of doubt in her tone, Lensha felt the world sway around her.

"Here is a example my father once told me. Say you have two seeds. One is the child of a seed that was taken straight from nature, the other was created by man by mating two plants that were never meant to be."

"Like plants from far away countries?"

"Exactly, so you plant both seeds and they grow into plants, they both have been born from nature but I can better control the plant that is from the seed taken straight from nature rather than the man made one. Not say we cannot control man made nature-born things because we can since everything's origin is from an element of gihala but the more 'pure' the element the stronger it is for us and the easier it is to control and manipulate." Chec nodded to her words.

"I think I understand now." he crossed his arms and leaned on the table, clearly intrigued by the topic "I have heard stories of people who "could turn shadow's into snakes" from my time in service but to be honest I never believed any of them, I always thought they were just that, stories. Tall tales told by intoxicated, the ill and the broken but now I'm starting to believe them now that I have actually witnessed an example of these supernatural fairy tales."

"Same. The lady could probably make shadow snakes." Lensha mumbled inaudibly as her vision began to turn fuzzy.

"'Turn shadow's into snakes', hm? They are maybe talking about a Shadow Witch." she mumbled mostly to herself "But I understand what you are saying. Mainland people do not believe in those things from what I have heard. It is a shame really, they came from the Rural's, yet they abandoned their own people and became what they were running from." she said sadly with a hand on the center of her chest.

"'Mainland people'? Are you implying that you're from the Rural's?" Chec asked, Lensha felt a small burst of energy shoot through her at the new found information.

"Yes I am, I thought that was clear?" she tilted her head to the side.

"Well, it kind of was but to me personally I couldn't be sure since I've met many people who have Kakiemenian accents but I don't think I've met someone with an accent as thick as yours."

"Yes ..." she responded, not really knowing how to respond to his statement.

"Sorry, let's change the subject?" she nodded "When you said 'abandoned their people' are you referring to the war from 40 years ago?" Lensha was even more surprised than before. She had never heard about any sort of war in this country, not even in her history classes had any of her teachers mentioned a war. And by the look on Crow's face she seemed equally surprised, then again it was hard to tell sense any expression she made is always diluted by the everlasting tired look on her face. "Did I say something inappropriate?" he asked after a few beats of surprised silence.

"Re ... ferring?"

"It means to mention something."

"Ah, okay. But no I was not ... referring to the war. I honestly don't know too much about it because I was born long afterwards, that and no one really talks about it, at least not openly. You surprised me."

"Oh, was it innappropriate of me to mention it?" he asked worringly.

"No, not at all. But personally I believe that is one of the main reasons why they fought their children."

"I see ... but we are kind of getting off the main topic aren't we? Could you tell us more about witches if you don't mind?" he asked after a pause of reflection.

"Like wha- teh bahll!" she swore in her native tongue, Shadow barked once at the sudden noise. She was cut off by Lensha's head loudly hitting the table followed by heavy breathing. Crow stood up cautiously and examined her as best she could from her side of the table "Has she is died?"

"N-no, she just fatigued, she'll be alright." he snorted, both at Lensha suddenly giving into her exhaustion and at Crow's broken english; but he couldn't make fun of her about it, her english was better that the native people he was stationed with back in the day. "I'll put her in the cot room, then we can continue our conversation, okay?" he said as her scooped the unconscious woman into his arms.

"Yes." she nodded.

\----

Lensha woke up after what felt like a few minutes. She looked around fearfully at first seeing that was not her bedroom, then she remembered talking with Crow and passing out at the table. An embarrassed blush spread across her face and she threw her head into her hands as internally scolded herself for doing something so humiliating. _'Why didn't I just go home!? I probably could've asked her questions another time! Well ... probably not, but that doesn't matter! God, that's so embarrassing~. I didn't even get to ask the questions I wanted to, how stupid is that!? Ugh, I still have so many questions I want to ask! Maybe its not too late! What time is it?'_. She looked over at the clock over the doorway but she couldn't read the time due to how dark it was. Then she noticed that she was in the cot Chec normally slept in and his cot was under the window. So she pushed herself up just enough to look out the window behind her, she saw that the street lights glowed softly against the dark blue-grey late afternoon sky. _'How long was I asleep?'._

She sat up sleepily and threw her legs over the side of the cot as she rubbed the sleep out of her face. Just as she began to stand up she felt her heartbeat skip and pressure constrict her chest as a subtle movement on her right caught her eye. It was too dark to make out any defining features of the humanoid figure, the only things that could be made out was the whoever it was was sitting on one of the cots, they were very small, like a child, and they were making some kind of movement with their arms.

"C-Crow...?" she stuttered subconsciously into the darkness. She had no idea why she said Crow's name, she believed that it was a some random child but her mind seemed to have thought other wise.

"So you can feel me." she spoke softly. The moon began rising and the soft white light it emitted seeped through the spaces in the blinds from behind Lensha and casting the light onto her and stretching out her Shadow on the floor. As the moon rose further up into the dark sky the light began to bend and crawl over the objects in the room as well as over Crow revealing that she had finally gotten herself cleaned up. The light crawled over her thin legs and the new pair of skinny jeans the covered them, then her torso that was now dressed in a black waist length vest and a far more fitting dark purple shirt with elbow length sleeves that partially covered her painfully fragile looking arms, then it passed her slender neck and revealed her face and head. Her face and hair were now rid of dirt and blood stains, her somewhat diluted skin contrasted heavily with her dark and slightly sunken eyes which were currently closed as her hands made work of braiding her clean silky ash-black hair into long singular braid; she honestly wanted to run her fingers through her hair so badly that it hurt.

"Feel ... you?" she questioned aloud still in awe at Crow's transformation.

"Yes, can you not feel it? I know you can not see it but I know you can feel it." she explained brokenly.

"Feel ... what exactly?"

"My soul, my energy, you can feel it, yes? I can feel yours. It gives an ... odd feeling." she admitted as she reached into the pocket of the vest, pulled out a shiny object, attached it to her braid, then flipped it behind her.

"What...?"

"I will show you." she stood up and walked over to Lensha slowly with her arms crossed while holding her elbows and a guarded look on her face. Actually, her entire demeanor seemed guarded for whatever reason she couldn't explain why but she just felt as though she was ... on the defensive, the closer she got to her the heavier her defensive attitude felt. She suddenly stopped a few feet away from her and stared down at her with an odd, almost inquisitive, look on her face. "How do you feel? Do you feel any heat, pressure? Anything?" she asked with her head tilted slightly and a hand pointed at the center of her chest, Lensha's face lit up.

"So you knew about the pressure!? Why didn't you tell me earlier!?" she shouted, Crow recoiled at the anger filled words.

"I-I was not fully sure that you felt me, I did not.want to make assumptions. But after what happened yesterday ... by that wall, I knew that you could feel souls, or at least my soul, because I, er, feel you ... feeling me? It is a weird feeling to explain." she explained while avoiding her gaze.

"... I feel ... pressure." Lensha spoke after taking a moment to compose herself, she didn't want to upset her like she did earlier. "Its not a lot before by the wall or the first time we found you in the pantry but its like ... its like you're ... guarding yourself?" Crow looked taken a-back by her words.

"That is surprising." she muttered to herself as she squeezed her elbows seemingly for comfort or stress relief. Crow then finally looked her dead in her eyes before a quick flash of red temporally blinded and disorientated her for a few seconds. She rubbed her eyes then looked back up at Crow to see that she was starting at her intently, her glare was so intense that it made her insides churn.

"Um...?" Crow blink rapidly as her discomfort brought her from her daze.

"I am sorry." she placed a hand over her heart and bowed partially. "I will leave now." she said without any warning or prompting upon standing up straight again then turned around and began walking towards the lobby.

"Wait, where are you going!? I still want to know what you mean!" Crow stopped dead in her tracks for a few seconds then turned to face Lensha.

"Come with me." she said blankly.

"...What?"

"Come with, I want you to see what I show." Lensha glared at her in in confusion. After taking a few seconds to decipher her words she had an inkling that she meant to say 'Come with me, I want to show you something.

"Show me what?"

"You are interested in witches, yes? Majic? You can see souls better than most, so I want to show you." she explained, Lensha took some time to think it over.

Yes, she was interested in witches and majic but Crow isn't exactly explaining herself very well; that language barrier is a pain. What else did she have to show her? She's already seen her fight, is there more to her powers? What else could there be?

"... Okay." she reluctantly agreed and got up to follow her; you never know whats on the other side of the wall if you don't look right? Crow tapped her thigh and whistled causing Shadow to fiercely scurry from under the cot she was sitting on before and rush to her owner's side. She patted her head and muttered some praises to her before continuing out the doorway and into the lobby which had a surprising amount of people in it considering the time. But seriously what time was it? Lensha looked over at a clock on the wall; 8:23 it read.

"I was knocked out, wasn't I ...?" she muttered to herself.

"You were not knocked unconscious, you fell into asleep, did you not?" Crow slowed her brisk pace to address her, Lensha suppressed her laughter.

"N-no, no its just a say-"

"Where are you two headed off to~? Ohh, and I see that Chec managd to convince you to finally clean yourself up huh, Crow?" Viper prodded playfully, Crow looked downwards and did not respond.

"Uh, we-were just going out for a walk." she lied.

"This late at night? Listen, I'm not trying to tell you guys what to do but I don't think you two should go out this late at night with that woman still out on the streets." Lensha stiffened at the mention of the woman, flashbacks of the tree crushing her to death played back through her head.

"It will be fine." Crow chimed in "I will protect her if need be." she said stoically as she began to walk towards the doors. Lensha and Viper gave each other confused looks before Crow spoke up again "Are you following?"

 "Yeah, I'll be right there in a sec." she responded as she began walking towards her, but a quick forced grabbed her wrist and gently pulled her backwards.

"You two better be careful, especially you." Viper warned, she didn't seem to like the situation at all.

"It's fine, what are you so suspicious about anyway." Lensha pulled her arm away.

"Just be careful." she sighed, crossing her arms.

"We will, we will, okay? Can I go now, mom?" she whined over dramatically.

"Yeah, get outta here ya crazy kids!" she waved them off, Lensha giggled then quickly made her way over to Crow and her companion.

"Sorry, ready to go?" she asked as Crow held the door open for her.

"It's okay, what was wrong?" she began walking, Lensha followed alongside her.

"Nothing, Viper just wanted to tell us to be careful." she said with a small smile on her face, it made her feel good knowing that she was concerned for their well-being.

"Why? She does not know me, I am a stranger, no?" she looked oddly fearful.

"Well you've kinda 'lived' at her shelter for over a month now so you're not exactly a stranger anymore." she shrugged. Crow went silent after that as they continued their walk, all the while having an unreadable expression on her face the entire time.

As they continued Lensha couldn't help but to notice that they were going in the same direction they went when Crow was chased by the masked woman which made her feel a little uneasy and Shadow sniffing the ground the entire time which made her feel even more uneasy for some reason. This whole situation just made her feel dreadful, she felt that at any moment something bad would happen.

"You do not have to be afraid, you have not put danger to me and I will not put danger to you." Crow said unexpectedly, that same blank stare still plastered on her face. 

"Did you just feel my soul just now?" She questioned suspiciously.

"No, body talk."

"Body talk?"

"Yes, like, the way you carry oneself when feeling certain feelings."

"Wha-... do you mean body language?" she spoke though restricted laughter.

"I guess so?" Lensha laughed aloud to Crow's confusion. When she was done and had wiped the joyful tears from her eyes a thought came to her mind,

 _'Crow can easily tell what I'm feeling by just looking at me but I can't tell what she's feeling at all! That's not really fair.'_ she pouted to herself _'Where are we going anyway? What is she thinking? What is she feeling? ... I wonder...'_ she thought to herself. 

She claimed she could feel souls, right? And she's felt her soul and how she felt on accident before, so why not try to do it on. She discreetly got closer to her and stared straight ahead as she focused on trying to feel her soul. Her body tensed up as she concentrated as hard as she could to feel something. But to her surprise she felt nothing, no heat, no pressure, nothing. 

_'What gives? I can't feel anything?'_

"It will not work." she spoke suddenly again, this time it actually managed to startle her "I have hidden my soul from you and anyone else who wants to be nosy." she gave her a look she couldn't quite make out, while Lensha stared back in shock and irritation. "We are here anyways, let us go." she stepped over the bushes and into the forest, it took a few seconds for Lensha to snap out of it and continue following her.

It's pretty safe to say that she was pissed and knowing how emotions worked she would probably remain in a sour mood for the rest of the night. First going the the same direction where Crow was chased by the woman and now she's being all secretive and crap? She wanted to turn around and go home, but she already walked this far out so might as well see what she has to show, right?

She walked through the bushes were Crow and Shadow were waiting for her. As soon and they began walking forward Shadow barked and bolted deeper into the forest then leaped over some bushes.

"Hyperactive little..." Crow mumbled under her breath "Shinka! Sho mei!" she shouted after her while picking up her pace.

They followed Shadow over the bushes and came upon a narrow hidden pathway that was a different route than the one Lensha took by herself. On this new route she got to see the worst of the destruction Crow and the masked woman have caused during their battle. All around them was nothing but damage and destruction. From large holes punched straight through great old oaks, to other trees being cut completely in half and large chunks of earth missing from the ground their fight had truly eaten parts of this forest. Some trees had been pulled out of the ground and tossed elsewhere while others had odd blackish-purple scorch marks on them.

She felt sick, they both did. They way the air felt and the odd burning and metallic smell that lingered in the air gave Lensha a headache and made Crow want to throw up.

After taking in the depressing scenery Crow straightened her stance, made a large circular motion with her arms before holding her hands in front of her, about navel height, palms facing downwards and fingertips touching. Lensha felt the air between them shift and pressure build as she then took in a deep breath and a transparent white glow surrounded her body. With each breath she took the glow around her grew in size and intensity engulfing both Lensha and some of the trees around them, the pressure within in her chest increasing 10 fold as it did. It wasn't painful, actually it was quite calming and had a strange yet comforting tingly feeling with it that made her skin rise with goose bumps and the small hairs on her body vibrate with ... joy, maybe? The energy within the light began moving outwards and the environment surrounded by the soft light began to heal slowly, almost unnoticeable so. Despite the painfully transformation it still left her in awe, the broken and tattered land before her was slowly being repaired and returning to its proper state right before her eyes. Crow then made the same circular motion with her arms but in reverse and the pressure and light rapidly dissipated from the inside out and healed the surrounding lands nearly instantly.

"Whoa..." she gasped in amazement as she touched the tree next to her that before had a large chunk of it missing from its side. "That's ... so cool! It felt so strange, this is amazing!" she squealed.

"Strange? Undesired?" she asked worryingly, from the sound of her voice she seemed to be close to the ground.

"...Hm? No!" she responded after forcing herself to shift her attention to Crow, who was sitting on the ground taking off her well worn navy blue converse shoes with strands of her un-braided obscuring her face. "It was ... I don't know!? Warm, I guess. Kinda fuzzy, like how I would image static would feel like if you could touch it! It felt nice!" she reassured as she went over and offered a hand to help her get up.

"Ah..." she responded blankly before pushing herself off of the ground and continuing onward. She seemed to be in some sort of trance or just off somewhere deep within her own mind as she walked past her with a solemn expression on her face.

Despite the land now being healed the feeling of sickness lingered along with the burning metallic smell.

As Lensha walked behind her she couldn't help but to notice that she was walking oddly. She was walking on her tip-toes like a ballerina but with an odd limp to her unbalanced gait; had she always walked that way? She also notice that the shiny object she put at the end of her braid was a dark golden hair piece studded with fake red, green, and golden jewels. It was beautiful honestly but where in the world could she have gotten it from?

Her balanced improved when she made yet another circular motion and held her arms out on either side of her body with her head tilted back slightly and her eyes once again closed. The light had returned bigger and more intense than before once again engulfing both Lensha and the surrounding trees and they walked. The environment healed somewhat faster than before as well and stayed with them for the duration of the walk down the pathway.

They soon came across an entrance to the large opening that the women fought in but instead of being a gradual thinning of trees into the opening it was instead a massive space punched through the thick trees with the surrounding trees being covered with same blackish-purple scorch marks surround the entrance. Crow paused before walking through the artificial entrance, Lensha stood cautiously in the entrance. Crow tossed her shoes next to the entrance then walked near center of the opening and hopped in an odd skipping manner in circles as Lensha looked around.

The opening was more damaged than she remembered. All the bushes were coated black, trees were either cut down, scorched, missing large chunks or missing entirely, there was a large chunk of ripped up earth on her right, the ground was blacker than the deepest pockets of space and tree limbs of various sizes, shapes and amounts of damage littered the battle field. Over in the far upper left corner still lay that tree turned projectile still staying upright and charred to black up until about halfway up the trunk. Seeing it made her feel even more ill so she redirected her attention to Crow who had now stopped skipping in circles; good thing too because it was starting to creep her out.

She was standing perfectly still in the middle of the opening. Her stance was precise and elegant, she had her feet pointing towards different directions one in front of the other, her hand laying in the other, palms facing upwards and her head tilted downwards.

She raised both of her arms together forwards and upwards before quickly separating them and pulling them behind her with a slight bow causing the space they occupied to shift and buzz with energy. Not only could she feel the energy bending around her but she could see it! Pale cream lights with hundreds of thousands of little sparkles within them, they were like northern lights with creamy galaxies within them!

Crow then spun around with one arm still behind her and the other in front of her face and scattered the energy like glitter flakes in a bottle. She threw her arms behind her and too a big step to the right, the energy bent along with her like bird flying in a large mass. She moved so gracefully and loosely, but also was precise and calculating even though she still had her eyes closed.  The whole spectacle had Lensha in awe and silence.

As she spun and danced around the energy around them began to replace the stars and the black sky with creamy northern lights dotted with their own bright yellow stars. She looked the most at peace than Lensha had ever seen her. Her near constant expression of tiredness was now one of tranquility, the constant feeling of anxiety she gave off was non-existent. This was her zone. This was her peace.

She raised her arms in the air, crossed her legs then bowed, gently letting her arms fall downwards. The energy fell downwards a lot less gently, instead crashing down like an ocean wave and setting the air a buzz. Both of their hair rose up as if their was an electrical buzz nearby as the energy went to work on healing the damage they had cause. Right before her eyes trees and rapidly grown back their missing pieces, the scorch marks faded away, chunks of missing earth had magically been filled in and coated in luscious green grass. It was so unbelievable and beautiful that it made her want to cry.

She watched and felt the extra energy flow back to Crow, it swirled and danced around her before turning a ghostly white and was adsorbing into the center of her chest. When the energy had returned back to its rightful owner Crow gasped and fell to her knees, worryingly Lensha ran over to her thinking that she had fainted again.

"Are you okay!?" she shouted as she ran to her side, leaving some distance in between them.

"I am fine." she breathed out before getting back up and looking at the tree she threw on the woman. It was the only thing that hadn't healed. She walked over to it and raised her hand up with her index finger pointed upwards and summoned two large thorn-ed vines. The crossed her arms into an 'X' then raised her arms back up in the air causing the vines to wrap around the tree, stabbing the sharp thorns into it and slowly lifting it into the air. Lensha covered her eyes when she realized what she was trying to do. She didn't know why she was doing it but she knew that she didn't want to see the crushed and mangled body underneath that tree.

It took a few wiggles before she finally pried the tree out of the ground, Lensha groaned in anticipated mortification as she heard it creak and snap as it was hoisted into the air then gently set down on its side.

"Of course." Crow sighed. Lensha hesitantly uncovered her eyes to see what she was talking about. She first spotted Crow looking disappointingly at something on the ground, she followed her gaze to the spot where the tree was and only saw a small hole surrounded by scorched earth. Doubtfully, she carefully tip-toed over to the hole and looked in. Darkness. She was only met with darkness, there was no blood, no bones, not body. Just an empty black hole.

"What ... where did she go...? You threw the tree on her ... you crushed her didn't you!?" she shouted frantically.

"She used her majic to run. I should have known, she is a shadow Witch after all." she sighed, shaking her head in disappointment with her hand on her face.

"That means she's still out there doesn't it!? What's gonna happen!? Why aren't you worried!?"

"Why are you worried?" she asked calmly "She is not after you, she wants me. I do not understand why you are so-"

"I'm worried because I don't want you to get **killed**!" she hissed. She knew she was letting her temper get to her but she no longer cared. "That woman was trying to **murder** you, don't you understand!? Do you not care!?!" Crow took a few step back and stared at her with a mixture of fright and confusion.

"I do not believe she will kill me..." she mumbled.

"'Don't believe!?' She sent a giant pair of jaws to eat your fucking face off and you "do not believe" that she's trying to kill you!?" Crow's mixed expression turned to one of anger.

"You do not know my situation!" she retaliated, causing Lensha to step back but not step down; it was honestly the loudest she had ever heard her "You do not know a damn thing about what is happening but I do! So do not try to tell me what is happening when you know nothing!" 

The two angry women stood their ground huffing and puffing, both where too determined to back down.

"You know what? Fine, wanna get yourself killed? Go ahead!" Lensha started up again, getting up up in Crow's face "I've have to many sleepless nights because of you, I'm going home and have an actual restful night!" Crow let out a growl, jumped back and summoned to large vines by her sides.

"Leave then, you boanfa!"

She didn't know what a 'boanfa' was but she knew that it wasn't something nice. Without another word she spun around on her heel and walked back to the shelter.

When she got there Chec was standing outside leaning on the brick building next to the door, seemingly waiting for them to get back.

"Welcome back!" he called out as she approached the shelter "Wait, where's-" she took a sudden right turn and went into the small parking lot behind the shelter and went to unlock the door to her old-school punch buggy.

"Don't know, don't care, I'm going home!" she snapped back as she slammed the door and started up her car. She screeched out of the parking lot and down the road like a mad woman, nearly crashing into the light pole across the street as she drove home in an angry huff.

\----

Many minutes later Chec was still outside waiting for Crow to get back. He gave her approximately 20 minutes before he would go out and look for her. He hoped that Lensha drove home safely considering how angry she was and how she tends to act when she's angry. He knew that she was genuinely a sweet and generous person but she did have a slight temper. He also knew that she did all she could to keep herself in check and for the most part did so rather well but he knew that there was only so much you can take before you finally snapped. He felt that Crow's general difficulty was a build up to her outburst and that what ever she may have said she didn't mean. Most of the time she doesn't mean what she says when she loses her temper, most of the time.

He sighed and watched his heated breath float up and fade away as he leaded his head on the wall. He really hoped that they were both okay.

After about 15 minutes Crow had not returned, so keeping to his self-made promise he went out and looked for her.

Only to return about an hour later empty handed and worried sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to look up 'how to write a dance scene' for this and somehow I ended up on a website about pole dancing? I didn't find many helpful tips so I just winged it ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. Also did you know that some folks are trying to make that an Olympic sport!? That sounds fucking awesome in my opinion! I also had to look up ballet stuff and they way these people stand during practice and performances, HOLY ANKLES! I use to hate ballet but now I have a new found respect for ballerina's and danseur's (male ballerina)! I mean the shit they go through, the flexibility and training they have to do to do these things just blows my mind! So good on y'all because I know I can't even ATTEMPT to do any of that shit!
> 
> Anyway, thanks you for reading! Please tell me what you think in the comments below, I would like to hear yall's opinions! O/
> 
> Words before chapter: 34,010


	7. Toxcicity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lensha is still bitter about the argument she had with Crow and her negative attitude is affecting everyone around her even her best friend. But someone unexpected straightens them out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna try to do POV shifts more often to keep things interesting and also try to put everyone in a different light every once in awhile.

Lensha opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. She could tell by the lack of light infiltrating her room that is was either still late at night or really early in the morning. She attempted to roll over on her side and see what time it was only to realize that she was once again paralyze. _'Oh, great. Fantastic. Just what I needed.'_   she thought to herself before giving up on trying to find out the time and closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

After what only felt like a few minutes her eyes shot open with a gasp as she felt the uncanny feeling of being watched warp her mind with paranoia. She searched around frantically for whatever was watching her from the shadows of her abnormally darkened room. Usually the curtains, even when closed, would let in enough moonlight for her to see just past the foot of her bed but now it was so dark that she couldn't even see the nightstand that was usual right next to her bed. Still paralyzed, the only thing she could see was the foreboding darkness to her right.

Her heart nearly jumped out of chest when she heard what sounded like breathing coming from the end of her bed. She strained her eyes to look downwards as the breathing got louder and louder as whatever or whoever was making the noise go closer to her bed. She let out a whimper when she heard the floor boards begin to creek slowly one after the other, as if whatever was down there was slowly and deliberately putting its weight on the boards in order to get a rise out of her. This went on for what felt like hours before the creature made the loudest creak, what sounded to be right at the foot of her bed, then it went silent. No breathing, no creaking, nothing.

But then she saw it.

A lone hand that was holding onto her base board. She tried desperately to gain control of her body but her own vessel of flesh seemed to be against her at this point for it did not respond to her desire to move. Her breathing picked up as the other had grabbed a hold of the base board and the floor boards creaked as if weight was slowly being removed from them. She was forced to watch as the being pulled itself over the base board and began crawling onto her bed, its form emerging from the darkness as it did so. First she noticed the crooked fingers on each hand, then abnormally large dark purple sleeves, then she noticed the low cut collar of its wardrobe that exposed her generous bust, its face however was concealed by a mask. More specifically a white deer mask with the pupils of the mask resembling actual deer eyes. It was her. Lensha whined and felt tears well up in her eyes as the woman crawled towards her ever so slowly. It was taunting her, she knew it was, she felt the same feeling of dread when she first encountered her.

But how did she get in her house? Why was she here? What did she want?

All that didn't matter since before she knew the woman was mere inches away from her face, the realistic eyes of the mask appeared to be actual deer eyes glued onto it. She could hear her raspy breath echo through the mask, and she could feel the dread gradually begin to suffocate her along with the alluring smell of raspberry scented perfume. The woman slowly reached up and grabbed the snout of the mask and pulled it above her head, revealing that she didn't have an actual face. Instead her whole face was replaced with what appeared to be some kind of screen with multiple black jagged lines squirming and wriggling with in it, all the while a loud static noise was coming from her 'face' and making Lensha cringe in discomfort from its volume.

Suddenly there was a pop followed by the sound of shattering glass as lines broke out of the screen and began stabbing through her pillow and bed around her head. One even burned her cheek as it ripped through her bed like paper. The woman then floated upwards and backwards, the lines stretching to accommodate the distance as she looked down on her victim. She felt like helpless prey that was about to be eaten. A loud pop of static and glass breaking hurt her ears as a particularly large line shot out from where the woman's forehead would be. It floated mindlessly in midair for a few seconds before suddenly rocketing down towards her, but instead of piercing her bed like the others it stabbed right through the center of her chest. She felt her sternum crack then shatter into pieces before the line continued straight through her body and grazed her spine before her body finally allowed her to scream.

Lensha found herself sitting in an upwards fetal position, clutching her head and screaming so loudly that the neighbors dogs were barking. When she realized that she was screaming she forced herself to closed her mouth and fell face first onto her bed. There she stayed for over 30 minutes, doing her breathing exercises and trying to figure out if she was actually in reality. After calming down enough to have somewhat rational thoughts she immediately grabbed her phone and pressed the 'emergency contacts' button which only held three numbers, 911, Viper, and Gloris the latter of which she ended up calling. She waited anxiously, continuing her breathing exercises, as the phone rang, she could only hope that Gloris wasn't in too deep of sleep to not hear the phone like last time.

"Hello ...? Acrylis residence?" she must have accidentally hit the home phone number, either way she couldn't be happier to hear that groggy voice of hers. 

"G-G-Glo-ris ..." she choked out through fresh tears.

"Lensha!? What's wrong!? Are you okay!?" she sounded much more awake.

"D-d-duck w-wings ..." she started the beginning of their secret code that they only used in order for Lensha to know if she was awake of not. Each pair of words was related to one another in a way that only the two of them knew of.

"Red door."

"Pl-plaid pants..."

"Wet origami." the code was correct, she could breathed a sigh of relief knowing now that she is ,in fact, in reality. "Did you have another nightmare or something? You sound like my Aunt Carrie."

 "I t-think I threw out my voice."

"From screaming again?"

"Yeah..." she nodded even though she knew she couldn't see her.

"What happened?"

"I had a h-hallucination ... I-I think." she looked skeptically around her room and of course it wasn't nearly as dark as it was in her hallucination but Pumpa nearly made her jump out of her skin when she did a double-take at the door way.

"Are you okay? Do you need me to come over?"

"N-no, I think I'm alright." she lied.

"Are you sure? You know I'll be over there in, like, 6 seconds, dude."

"No, i-its fine, I'll just sit up with Pumpa for awhile." said rabbit made his way onto her bed and laid comfortably in her lap.

"Alright ... you want me to stay up with you?"

"... If it won't be any trouble."

"Nah, its no problem, dude. I'm more of a night owl anyway." she chuckled.

For a while Lensha and Gloris talked about random trivial things, but mostly Lensha listened to Gloris' random tangents which she didn't mind, she was grateful for her and Pumpa's company. Not once did Gloris pressure her to talk to her about the hallucination which she highly appreciated, she appreciated everything she did; even the stupid things. She was a great friend, her only friend really. Sure, she knew Chec, Viper, Rome and now Crow but she never felt that she could ever tell them about her secrets, especially this. She knew they probably wouldn't judge her, especially Chec, but she just couldn't bring herself to ever tell them. Its not like she didn't trust them, but she could just never bring herself to tell anyone else. Maybe its her shyness or introversion talking but she just felt as though they wouldn't care, they would just shrug it off and tell her to get over it, just like nearly everyone else she's told. The only people who didn't judge her was Gloris and her mother, and for that she would be forever grateful to them.

After a couple of hours of mindless talking Lensha passed out in an awkward position with Pumpa sleeping soundly in her lap. Gloris expected this but stayed on the line for a few minutes more just in case, only after she was sure that her friend was sound asleep she hung up the phone and got some sleep herself.

\----

The next morning Lensha went about her routine, minus breakfast, and went to work. She had a painful crook in her neck from sleeping improperly, normally she would take some pain killers for any harsh neck or back pain but she unfortunately ran out ... many weeks ago and kept forgetting to get more. Looks like she's just going to have to tough it out.

By the time she got to work her voice was still raspy and she wanted nothing than to go home and sleep but she would feel guilty if she missed two days if work in the same week. It was a silly thing to feel guilty about but she had made a promise to look after her mother's pride and joy and dammit she was gonna keep it.

All the employees turned and stared at her with various expressions as she reluctantly walked inside, some seemed surprised, others looked worried and some looked just as ready to go home as she was.

"You actually showed up, I'm surprised!" Gloris squealed as she skipped over to her joyfully and pulled her into a warm hug. "Are you okay? You know you didn't have to come here if you're not feeling well." she whispered into her ear, using the hug as a cover.

"I'm fine, Gloris. Can you let go of me now, Omik is glaring at us." Gloris huffed in annoyance before she did as she was asked.

To Lensha's surprise Omik didn't scold Lensha for her missing a day of work and he even seemed to take pity on her poor condition and told her to stay in the back all day and bake while Gloris was assigned to cashier duty for half the day then she was to switch with another employee to do floor duty. This man couldn't be her father could he?

After everyone was given their duties for the day they all went to work as the bakery opened its door, ready for business. Or lack thereof.

The day was surprisingly slow, the usual rush of customers during the first few hours now a pathetic trickle. Omik was clearly very annoyed by this and began giving people busy work so he won't be forced to "Pay people for doing nothing.". He had given Gloris the task of organizing the cash register, problem was that was done already. It appears that he had forgotten that when Gloris is on the register that it would always be organized. Finding nothing to give her he turned to Lensha and demanded that she clean the entire baking room, all by herself. Lensha complied being too tired to argue with her father, he then proceeded to walk away and give another poor soul some orders.

"You want some help there, buddy." Gloris asked, leaning into the room through the pass-through window.

"Omik said that I had to clean it on my own remember?" she replied weakly.

"And when have I ever listened to Omik?" she snorted, Lensha's only response was a blank stare "Exactly, never. I'll be back there in a sec." her head popped back out of the window like a gopher and within seconds she was opening the door to the baking room and helping clean up. For a long while they cleaned in silence, other than the occasional cough from the lose powder particles that fogged the room. "Sooooo ... wanna tell me what happened to you last night?" she asked suddenly, a soft thump followed by a groan was heard when Lensha headbutted the broom she was currently sweeping with.

"Why...?" she whined.

"Because I haven't heard you that scared in forever. You scared the shit outta me, dude." Gloris paused awaiting some kind of response from her exhausted friend only to get nothing "I'm just worried about you, Lensha. I told you before and I'll say it till the end of time if that's what it'll take to get it through ya head. You can talk to me about anything, I won't judge, I won't tell, I'll just listen." her voice was uncharacteristically quiet and somber as she spoke; she honestly hated it when she got like that it just made her feel worse for whatever reason. After a beat of silence Gloris sighed quietly then went back to cleaning as if nothing happened, while Lensha just continued to stand there feeling guilty, tired and stupid.

"Do you remember that masked woman from a couple days ago?" she forced herself to speak.

"Of course I do, she was fucking scary, dude!" she said as she threw her hands in the air, accidentally tossing her cleaning rag with the motion.

"Well ... I had a hallucination about her."

"Your paralysis again?" she asked looking at her from between her legs as she bent down to get the tossed rag, Lensha nodded.

"It was ... so weird.  She climbed on my bed and got all up in my face, her creepy mask that had actual deer eyes glued to it. Then she took it off and she didn't have a face, she had, like, some sort of ... static-y TV screen for a face with these thick black cable looking things squirming inside of it like panicking worms or something. After she stared at me for a bit the cables started bursting out of her face and stabbing through my bed all around my head." she made a circular motion around her head with her free hand.

"Ew." she looked ready to throw up as she rinsed off her towel then resumed wiping off the counters.

"Yeah ... Then she flew backwards into the air like someone pulling her like a stringed puppet or something with the cables still attached to her face. Then when she was over my bed she looked down at me and ..." she paused, Gloris looked back at her and saw that she was staring off into nothingness.

"And what?" she prodded, as amused chuckle escaped from her.

"I could've sworn she was ... smiling at me, laughing even. I heard it, I swear I did, a loud, dry, chain-smoker cackling." Lensha's face had long ago contorted from one of fear and hesitation to one of anger, she even had one of her hands clenched in an angry fist.

"Alright, okay, let's just talk about something else, huh?" Gloris offered "Oh, what about the-" Gloris was cut off by the sound of a customer ringing the silver service bell that sat on the counter. "I'll be up there in a second!" Gloris shouted as she finished wiping down the counter. Out of curiosity Lensha looked out of the window to see who it was, she gasped when she saw the familiar face.

Right before Gloris walked out the door Lensha pulled her back and made her duck underneath the window.

"Hey, hey, hey! I know you don't want to clean this all by yourself but I'm on register duty, dude!" she complained.

"No, its not about that. Crow is out there." she whispered angrily.

"Really?" she asked before peaking out of the window herself and just as she said Crow's was standing at the counter, she seemed nervous but also intrigued by the inside of the building as she looked around curiously. "Huh, you ain't lyin'. But why don't you want me to go out there, I thought you and her were cool?"

"We had a ... disagreement." she pouted, firmly pressing her back against the cabinets like a disgruntled child on time-out.

"Really, what happened!? Actually, no, never mind, that doesn't matter because I still need to go serve her." she paused, waiting for a response from Lensha "Because you know it's my **job** and I have **bills** to pay!?" Gloris tried to reason with her, she still didn't get a response. "Lensha...?"

"Fine..." she grumbled passive aggressively.

"Please don't be like this-"

"I said fine! Go!" she snapped suddenly. Gloris was taken aback but not entirely surprised, all she could do was give her friend some space and time to cool off.

Crestfallen, she went out on the floor and behind the counter, Crow was still busy looking around the bakery.

"Hello and welcome to Rasin Sun." she said cheerfully, she could feel Lensha staring at her. Crow jumped back at her voice but appeared to calm down somewhat when she saw who was serving her.

"D-dejo." she stuttered, greeting her with a slight bow.

"What can I get for you, dude?" she leaned on the counter, not feeling the need to put on the 'register worker face'. Crow seemed both confused and frightened.

"Um, flat, tiny, bread pieces?" Gloris made a confused expression "In the blue bags?" she made a rectangular shape with her hands. Gloris pounced her fist in her open hand when she realized what she was talking about.

"Oh, the tortilla chips! Yeah, we have something like that, they're home-made. Oh my God they're so good, you'll love em." Crow looked around the bakery.

"Where?" she questioned with her head tilted to the side, Gloris looked over at the empty chip rack that had not been restocked. She pointed her thumb behind her,

"Oh, we have some ... in back." her cheerful sentence turned to one of dread.

"Lensha is back there?" Crow asked, trying to peer behind the 5'8 woman and into the window. She actually caught sight of her staring menacingly at them both before she quickly retreated.

"Yeah, she is. How did you know?" she asked, finally putting her hand down.

"I can feel the anger fuming from her soul. It is toxic." she responded dreadfully. She didn't quite understand what she meant by 'feeling the anger fuming from her soul' but she could defiantly agree with the toxic part!

"Yeah, you're telling me." she groaned, crossing her arms in increasing irritation "You guys got into a fight or something?" Crow looked mortified.

"What? I did not hit her!" she shouted in a panic, taking a step backwards and causing a few of the employees to look at them in confusion.

"No, no, no, not like a fist fight, like an argument." she spoke in a hushed manner.

"Oh ... Y-yes, we did not agree, we both got angry." she was a lot calmer now but also a lot sadder.

"Hey ... listen, I'm sorry, I'll just go get your chips." she pointed awkwardly at the door behind her, Crow nodded while looking down at the floor.

Gloris reluctantly went into the back, and of course Lensha was staring daggers at her. She decided to ignore her, for her sake, for Crow's sake and for her sanity sake. She briskly walked to the back, picked up a few baked chip bags and left without even so much as looking at her, better yet feeding her petty anger.

Finally back at the sanctuary that was the front counter she laid out the 3 different types of chips in front of her.

"This green on is onion and sour cream, the red one is spicy, and the light blue one is regular, which one ya' want?" she struggled to keep her cheerful demeanor but Crow wasn't buying it for a second. She looked sorrowful as she picked out two red bags and one blue bag. "Ahh, a spicy lover huh? I'm the same way." she attempted to make some sort of small talk with the small girl but her only response was a disconnected stare of confusion "... That'll be 2.50." she said deafeningly. She rummaged through her vest pockets and pulled out one 2 dollar couse coin and a 5 dollar one, she looked out them in confusion before hesitantly putting them on the counter.

"This...?" she muttered fearfully.

"Um ... I'll just take the 5 dollar coin, give you back the 2 dollar and give you your change for this." she held the large hexagonal coin in between her fingers as she explained, Crow seemed completely dumbfounded but nodded anyway.

After putting her goods in a brown paper bag Crow walked out of the bakery and was immediately blindsided by a hyperactive Shadow who had come speeding from the alleyway next to the building. The impact of the large dog and small woman was so forceful that it knocked her to the ground and out of sight, Gloris had to cover her mouth in order to contain her laughter. After only a few moments Crow got off the ground, dusted herself off and walked away.

"Huh, ... tough little turkey ain't she?" she giggled to herself.

\----

It was over, it was finally over.

Gloris didn't know what the hell happened near the end of the day but it got extremely hectic, extremely fast. A few hours before closing a crap ton of people flooded the bakery and a line ended up forming outside! The line didn't wrap around the block or anything but the mere fact that the small establishment had an outdoor line in the first place was jaw dropping. Things got so crazy that Omik actually had to pitch in for once and help bake more goods, much to Lensha's dismay, and they ended up staying open for nearly 2 hours longer than they usually did.

When things eventually settled down most people began leaving while only people who where willing to stay behind to help clean up for extra overtime pay stayed behind. Gloris of course was not one of them, she was so ready to get away from Lensha's contagious attitude that she practically ran of the the bakery and sped walk down the street towards the shelter. Her feet slammed hard against the concert with each stiff step she took, her chest constricting with every breath she took, her fists clenching tighter and tighter in her pockets the longer she thought about it.

"Fucking dammit Lensha why can't you just get a grip, huh?" she mumbled to herself, releasing her frustrations on a helpless pebble she began kicking along the sidewalk. "Sure, you two and an argument, so what!? Its nothing to be **this** angry about for an entire day, that's just ridiculous! She's ridiculous - OW!" finding that the torture of the lone pebble wasn't enough to calm her she impulsively punched a light pole to her left; you can imagine how that went down.

"Gloris?" she heard a familiar voice call from behind her, she turned around, clutching her hand, to see Chec staring at her in bewilderment.

"What's up, big man." she waved weakly with her painful hand, Chec looked her up and down for a moment before responding,

"Nothing ... Why did you just punch that light pole." he pointed and the now dented luminescence.

"Cause' I'm mad as hell!" she admitted loudly "Lensha's been a dick all. Fucking. Day! And I'm fucking pissed!" she threw her head back and screamed at the heavens.

"Ah..." he said simply, not needing any further details on how she felt "I understand, just ... try to relax?" he spoke cautiously.

"I can't!" she yelled before turning to assault the light pole even more, now adding a few kicks along with a flurry of punches.

"Alright, alright, calm down. I understand why you're upset but you're causing a commotion and you might hurt your hands. Besides you being this angry isn't healthy for anyone, not for Lensha and especially you." he said softly, placing his hands on her shoulders in a calming gesture.

She took in a few deep breaths and managed to calm down enough to stop punching the pole and let her arms rest shakily at her sides. She continued breathing deeply as she looked at the severely dented pole, staring guiltily at her warped reflection. 

"Are you alright now?" he asked, releasing her shoulders from his gentle grip.

"Yeah, I'm good." she turned and looked up at him "Thanks, Chec." she smiled.

"Of course. Ready to go?" he patted her back, she nodded happily and they walked together, in a much more peaceful mood, to the shelter.

"I'm sorry by the way." she muttered.

"Hm? What are you apologizing for?"

"For yelling at you..."

"Oh, that's fine, I'd rather be yelled at than be that pole back there." he snickered, even though she felt like an ass his laughter always managed to make her smile. "How is your hand, is anything dislocated, broken?"

"Pff, when you've work on a farm with temperamental ostriches and llamas biting and pecking at your hands on a daily basis punching a metal pole is like a slap on wrist." she nudged his side as they both laughed at the dumb pun, Chec at one point laughed so hard that he just ended up wheezing for a good minute or so. "A-anyway, what are you doin' out here, goin' somewhere?"

"No, more like searching for someone, Crow to be more exact. She didn't come back after she and Lensha went out somewhere." he sighed.

"Oh, we saw her at the bakery! She came by to buy some chips. She had on a new get-up too, she looked nice, she even had her hair in a long braid." she made a flipping nothing with her hair then did a goofy twirl.

"Really? Well at least I know now that she's okay." he smiled in relief "Where did she get the money from?"

"I dunno, pan handling maybe?" she shrugged "Or maybe prost-"

"Gloris." he spoke sternly, silencing her mid-sentence "Was Shadow with her?" he asked after a beat of silence.

"Yep! She was as hyper as ever, she even tackled Crow to the ground like some kinda four legged football player but she didn't even care! She just dusted herself off and moved along." Chec hummed in response, he seemed to be off in his own little world as he blankly stared forward "What's the matter, big guy?"

"Do you know if Lensha and Crow had a falling out of some sort?" he asked after staring blankly into the void for a few seconds more "When Lensha came back she was the most angry that I've ever seen her. She sped out of the parking lot so quickly that she nearly collided with a light pole, I was genuinely concern that she would crash before she got home." he admitted.

"Angry Lensha driving is probably the most terrifying thing anyone can ever witness." she shuddered at the thought before forcefully pushing it from her mind "But yeah, from what they told me they had some kind of argument, I don't know what happened exactly but they both seemed upset."

"I wish I could've been there to help in some way." he said sadly.

"Don't worry about it, knowing Lensha it should blow over in a little while ... maybe. Why do you care so much about Crow anyways?" she asked, seeing the shelter only a couple blocks away across the street.

"I've been asking myself the same thing for the past few days." he sighed "I guess it's because she's so young, she can't be any older than 14 or 15 yet she's on the streets. She seems so scared, so ... vulnerable ... and I just ... I just don't want to see her get hurt. I don't want to see her anywhere near the condition in which we found her in that alley. I don't want her to end up like so many others I've seen, in prison, in prostitution, in a gang, on drugs or dead." an angry grimace spread across his face.

"Really? She looks about 17 to me but I get what you're saying. There's more young people on the streets now and days. I mean, look at Rome, he's like, what, 23 and has been on the streets for how long?" Chec shrugged sorrowfully "Its getting ridiculous around here." she said as they crossed the empty street.

"It is heartbreaking." he held the door open for her as they walked into the building and were immediately greeted by Viper.

"Hey you two!" she waved "Gloris, I'm so glad you're here. I'm a bit understaffed today so I could really use your help, do you know if Lensha is coming?" she asked intensely, grabbing her shoulders and staring her right in her eyes.

"I hope not." she hissed. Viper let go of her, taken aback by her bitter tone. She looked up at Chec who was was making a 'stop it' motion by rapidly sliding his hand in front of his throat. Viper was going to asked what the hell his deal was when Lensha walked through the doors with a scowl on her face.

"Ah, Lensha you're hear too!" Viper squealed in relief, Gloris tensed up. Viper looked between the young women sensing the tension between them "What's with this atmosphere?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Nothing." Lensha said blankly "Is Crow here?"

"Nooo ... She didn't come back last night and Chec didn't find her. Hell, I don't even know why he went, I mean the girl is a gypsy! She can do magic and shit so she should be fine." she shrugged, Chec gave her a odd look "Anyway, you two need to drop the attitudes, I've got inspectors coming here in about two hours and I want this place in its up most condition!" she said as she took on the stance of an army general, Gloris looked around in confusion.

"This place looks pretty clean to me." she shrugged.

"Not clean enough!" she shouted, pointing a finger at her "I did most of the work so all you two have to do is mop the floor, clean the kitchen and bathrooms and make sure the cot room is all set while I get some paperwork together. Got it?" 

"Yes, ma'am." the woman responded, Gloris in a playful solider-like manner and Lensha in a dead-pan tone.

"Good! Now don't you disappoint me!" she shouted, Gloris' playful demeanor rubbing off in her.

"Yes, ma'am!" Gloris shouted again, this time doing a salute.

"Dismissed!" she shouted, returning the salute and retiring to her office to get the mentioned paperwork order.

"I call the kitchen!" Gloris spoke quickly before speed walking into the kitchen. Lensha silently went into the cot room; all the while Chec watched with worried eyes.

He watched them clean for awhile. Their moments were a distraction from the worry filled thoughts that plagued is mind. However, soon their motions weren't enough and he found himself stress cleaning; an odd habit he picked up from Viper many years ago. He wiped down the cafeteria tables, even though Viper had already wiped them down, as Lensha silently swept the floor behind him. 

He thought about trying to make some pleasant small talk with her to ease the hostility laced air around them but he knew that would be a bad idea. The silence was killing him, the anger radiating from Lensha was chocking him. He could easily leave if he wanted to but he didn't want to leave Gloris her alone with her just in case they got into an argument. 

He hoped that someone would come and at least keep him company, maybe diminish the effects of the tainted air around him. Maybe that person would be Rome since he just walked through the doors.

"Welcome back, Rome." he greeted.

"Yo." he returned the greeting then began looking between him and Lensha as he walked up to him "What are you two doing? Was there a fight?"

"No. We are cleaning because Viper is expecting inspectors to pay a visit, there was no blood shed today ..." he paused as he looked over at her to make sure she wasn't paying attention and leaned in close to Rome who was visibly put on edge by his odd behavior "but if we don't be careful there might be." he whispered. Rome blinked in confusion before taking another look at Lensha.

"The fuck is her problem?" he pointed at her, Chec quickly pushed his hand down.

"She and Crow got into an argument the other night and she's been upset ever since."

"Ohhh, she's having another one of those hissy fits!" he spoke loudly, she gripped the handle of her broom in irritation.

"Keep your voice down, Rome! What are you trying to do, provoke her?!"

"Yes." he admitted boldly, crossing his arms "I don't get what you're scared of but I ain't scared of er'!" his voice increased in volume at the last few words

"Rome, I'm serious. Stop. I do not want you two getting into a fight. Everyone is in a dreadful mood as is and a fight will only make things worse."

"Who is everyone? Did she say anything fucked up to you!? I'll kick her ass right now, I ain't scared!" he pulled up his already short sleeve reviling his nonexistent bicep muscles, Chec roughly grabbed his arm.

"Knock it o -" the two quickly went silent when they heard one of the front doors open. Thinking it was the inspectors their heads whipped in the direction of the doors only to see Crow walking in cautiously. Shadow was not as wary as her owner and actually bumped into her as she ran up to greet Chec. If he wasn't sitting down she probably could have knocked him down or at least throw off his balance. She threw herself into his lap then began softly headbutting his stomach, demanding pets.

"Haha, welcome back, Crow and you too Shadow!" Chec greeted through his laughter, Crow didn't respond. Instead she stared fearfully at Lensha who seemed to be ignoring her presence as walked warily over to the table and sat on the opposite side where she rested her head.

"Where've you been?" Rome growled, she turned her head to the side and didn't respond.

"Crow ...?" Chec spoke softly after giving Rome a dirty look, she looked up at him "Why didn't you return the other night?"

"I did not want to." she answered tiredly.

"Because of the argument?" she gave him a quizzical look.

"No, I did nothing wrong."

"Like hell you did." Lensha mumbled to herself.

"I'm sorry, what was that!? You're gonna have to speak up if you wanna start shit!" Rome shouted obnoxiously, standing with one foot on the bench of the table.

"Rome I'm serious, stop your nonsense."

"I'll stop when she gets a grip!" all eyes where on Lensha when she dropped the broom and turned around, her face was red with anger.

"The only one who needs to get a grip is Crow!" she pointed "I mean who isn't concerned about some random woman trying to **kill you**!"

"You do not know about a damn thing about Rothin or me! So stay in your business and leave me to do what I have to!"

"I know enough to know that not only you but all of us are in danger! We should've called the cops or something!"

"Oh yeah, yes, call the police and tell them you saw a woman wearing a deer mask and throwing shadows, they will think you are perfectly sane."

"I think you're both out of your minds." Rome spoke up in a surprisingly calm manner.

" **What!?** " the arguing women said simultaneously.

"You heard me, you're both being assholes." he clarified, taking a few steps to be in between them both "So shut up and listen cus' I'm 'bout to enlighten y'all motherfuckers. You're first, Gothic." he spun around and pointed at Crow, making her jump and shrink in on herself from the unwanted attention. "Crow, Lensha has a genuine and understandable concern for not just yours but all of our safety and wants you to think rationally about your actions but about the people around you who are affected by this. She's pissed off because you're ring selfish and inconsiderate; also she has an anger management issue so that's a thing to consider." everyone but Lensha stared at Rome in awe at his uncharacteristically posh and well thought out manner of speaking; Chec nearly wanted to cry with joy.

"Exactly." Lensha boasted, crossing her arms and gleaming with pride.

"Pull your head out your ass cus' your next you top heavy badger." he spun back around and pointed at Lensha.

"Excuse me!?" she hissed, marching towards him, forcing Chec to get up and literally stand between them but Rome was completely unfazed.

"Lensha, the mystery box over here has a good argument too. Perhaps there is more to this situation than we know considering the fact that we don't know much about her and she did just call the woman 'Rothin' after all." Crow covered her mouth at the mentioned slip up "Neither Chec, Viper, Gloris, you or I know any more about witches, majic, or this situation than she does, so she would know what's best, right?" he looked at Lensha awaiting a response, she stubbornly turned her head to the side, avoiding his intense stare. "Right!?" he repeated more loudly than before as he took two steps towards her. 

"... Right." she sighed, her angry posture finally relaxing.

"Seeing as how you're **both** wrong **both** of you should apologize."

Neither of them said anything as they held their heads down in shame. Chec and Rome looked at each other worryingly.

"I am sorry." Crow mumbled "I have now seen your view and understand what you are trying to do, I should have listened better." she got out of her seat, put her hands together then turned them inwards so her finger tips were touching the center of her chest and bowed deeply "Yoamo eithry kai choanno yoawtoeil, please accept my sorry." Lensha stared and her in surprise and guilt, it only took her a stern tongue lashing and few seconds in order for her to push her pride aside and accept she was wrong. They both were wrong.

"Its pretty hard to listen when someone is screaming at you, hehe." she scratched her should and chuckled awkwardly before finally forcing herself to look at her "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have yelled at you like that and I shouldn't have held a grudge for this long ..." she walked over to her as she stood up from her bow. Lensha stared guiltily into her odd eyes and Crow stared back in confusion. Before she could back away Lensha suddenly pulled her into a hug, not knowing how to respond to the kind gesture Crow just stood there, staring into the void and praying that it would end soon.

"Noooow, kiss~!" A playful whisper said coming from the direction of the kitchen. Everyone turned to see Gloris peering out of the kitchen with a goofy smile on her face.

"Gloriiiis!" Lensha cried as she released Crow and ran over to her bestie pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry, I've been such a jerk to you, I've been a jerk to everyone." she was on the verge of tears.

"Nah, its alright buddy. We're use to it." Chec nodded in agreement while the shorter members of the group stared blankly at them.

The lovely moment and much calmer atmosphere was broken by Shadow barking angrily at the door.

"Is something outside?" Chec asked. Crow went over to the door and put a hand on her companions head turning her angry barks to annoyed growls.

"She is back." Crow said in a cold low tone that made Lensha shudder. Everyone walked cautiously towards the door and looked outside. They didn't have to look hard at all seeing that the woman was standing across the street under a street lamp with a black mist warping around her. The light from the lamp bouncing off the creepy and shiny deer mask.

"What do we do?" Gloris asked.

"I'll go phone the police." Chec spoke, already walking to Viper's office.

"No need." Crow spoke in a raspy voice with one hand pressed on the door "This is over. Shinka, dubo!" as soon as the foreign words left her mouth Shadow sat down and didn't move and inch. After giving her companion a quick pat on the head she began to make her way out of the building but she was halted by Chec grabbing her arm.

"You are not going out there." he said sternly.

"And why not?"

"Do you not remember what happened last time!? You crushed her with a tree on her and she's still here!" Lensha shouted, motioning to the woman who still had not moved.

"Wait, she threw a tree at her!?" Rome shouted.

"Let me go!" Crow shouted managing to tug her slender arm from Chec's firm grasp "I am going, I have to!"

"No you don't! We can call the police!" Gloris tried to reason with her.

"Your police are useless here. They will only die." she responded coldly "I am going." she had the last word as she went outside to face the woman.

" **Crow!** " everyone except Rome shouted.

"What the hell is everyone shouting for!" Viper yelled, marching her way to them.

"Vanessa, call the police! The woman is back and Crow just went outside to confront her!" Chec shouted in panic.

"Are you serious!?"

"Yes, go!" he yelled louder as his panic increased, Viper seemed hesitant for a few seconds but eventually ran back to the office. 

All the group could do was watch and hope that Crow didn't get herself killed. 

Crow was standing on the sidewalk, staring the woman down, the woman presumably was doing the same from the other side of the street. The tension and the dread increased and poisoned the air around everyone with each passing second.

After an eternity passed Crow was the one to make the first move by suddenly and rather quickly running up the street in the direction of the forest to both lure her away from the shelter and to have better 'weapons' to use against her. However, she was stopped dead in her tracks when the woman summoned two slightly transparent purple walls with swirling smokey shadows dancing within on either side of them.

The woman made her move now, the black mist concentrated around the woman's lower half and began lifting her off the ground. She then shot herself directly at Crow at tremendous speeds, two black jagged hands emerged from the mist and when she was mere feet away from her the hands shot towards her at a similar speed if not a bit faster. Crow dodged one hand by ducking and jumping to the side, the other she rolled under, both ended up slamming into the building shaking it's foundation and the people within.

"What the hell was that!?" Viper screeched, stumbling out if her office.

"The woman missed her attack!" Chec yelled above the loud rumbling of the building and Shadow's anxious barking "Did you call the police?"

"No, I can't, the call won't go through!" she said running up to the door. 

Back outside the woman appeared to be preparing another attack. The mist disappeared and she fell gently to the ground, she made a  half circular motion with her hand and her blacker than night shadow expanded forward in a half circle shape. She extended her hand over the shadow and globs of shadow began bubbling upwards like a small volcano of oil about to explode.

"Va!" Crow shouted as she uses the leaves of a nearby tree that was trapped with them as throwing stars. They spun unnaturally fast as they honed in on the woman but she ended up blocking then with a shield made up of her unnatural shadow. Using the leaves as distraction Crow then ran up to the side of the woman, she was so quick that it was almost as if she teleported. She the jumped far up into the air and delivered a swift kick to her neck. A loud crack was heard when her foot collided with it and the woman's head bent abnormally far to the side and everything went still. Crow fell to the ground ending up in a kneeling position and looked up at the still woman.

"Rothin ..." she whispered "Rothin, yamo ..." she stood up and gently touched the woman's hand "Roth-" the woman suddenly sprung back to life and roughly grabbed her wrist and flung her back across the street. She tumbled and skidded across the ground before her back and head slammed against the brick wall of a building.

Shadow completely lost her mind and her once anxious barks turned to ones of rage, she even began violently slamming her body against the glass doors and scratching at floor.

"Crow, get up! Get up!" Viper yelled frantically. Crow didn't move, her back was against the wall and her head drooped forward. The woman brought her hands together closing her shadow and began walking towards her.

"Oh my God, get up!" Gloris yelled. Nothing. Viper ran to the office while everyone else was in stunned silence as they anxiously watched the woman walk ever so slowly towards her.

The woman momentarily vanished into smoke and reappeared right in front of Crow. She stared her down with her head tilted to the side for a few moments then reached down and picked her up by her neck, letting her body hang helplessly in the air. 

At that moment the center of Lensha's chest was set ablaze and she suddenly felt like she wasn't in control of her body. She slammed open the door and Shadow immediately rushed out barking and snarling like no animal ever should. Lensha felt someone attempt to grab her shirt but she was already out the door and set in her mission: To get this son of a bitch away from Crow.

The woman turned around and began throwing miniature versions of the jagged hands at Shadow as she charged towards her. She surprisingly dodged every speeding hand with ease and actually managed to get close enough to bite her but she teleported away in a black mist. As if she already knew where she would end up Shadow charged the spot where she reappeared before she even saw her and managed to grab onto her dress, holding her in place. The woman then held her free hand in the air and shadows began forming some kind of dark purple orb with a light purple center.

Without thinking Lensha ran up to the woman as fast as she could, arm cocked back.

She rushed up behind the woman and jumped at an odd angle in order to be on the side of her face. She whipped her head around in surprise giving her the opportunity to punch her straight in the face. An opportunity she joyfully took. 

Her hand crashed into the clay made masked and smashed it into pieces, then her fist made work of the flesh. She felt her knuckles collide with the bridge of her nose cracking it under the sudden pressure, she could even feel the blood from said broken nose fly onto her hand as she attempted to plow right through her face. However the momentum of the punch sent the woman flying backwards, making her loose contact with her punch-able face. As the woman stumbled backwards she released Crow and the orb exploded into shadows in her hand, Crow ended up falling on top of her causing her fall flat on her back.

As she began pushing herself upwards with her elbows she could her the woman groaning in agony. She pushed herself further off the ground in order to see over Crow's unconscious body and to get a better look at the frighting foe. The woman was bent over at the waist, her manicured hands covering her face as blood dripped abundantly through her fingers with a black, almost fiery, mist whipped and thrashed around her like the beginnings of a tornado as her groans turned of pain turned into animistic growls and she shakily moved her hands away from her face.

She heard her neck crack and her he head snapped in their direction, she could feel her staring her down even though she had he eyes closed. She flinched when the woman took one loud step forward, her black high heel peaking through the rip Shadow had made. The next step paralyzed her when she stepped on one of the many pieces of her mask and the steps afterward made the feeling of dread in her chest increase tenfold with each clack of her heels. Her steps were slow at first, deliberate, taunting, but before long she was outright charging at them with wisps of shadows trailing behind her. Shadow chased her, barking maddeningly but the woman was easily out running her and quickly closing the distance between her and her prey.

20 feet, 17 feet, 10, 6, 4, she wasn't going to stop and Lensha couldn't move, all she could do was tightly grip Crow's vest as she started a her death.

Darkness. One loud clack. A distorted grunt. A second crack, louder than the last followed by incoherent shouting. It was only when she the felt Crow being lifted off of her lap did she finally open her eyes.

The world was in blurry slow motion as she tried to figure out what the actual hell was going on around her. She looked up to see Crow draped across Chec's left shoulder and Chec himself was talking to her but she didn't know what he was saying. She saw and felt Rome and Gloris pulling on her arms attempting to get her off the ground and after a few seconds of their nonsensical yelling they finally managed to get her up. That's when she saw Viper in front of Chec with a bloody aluminum baseball bat in her hand that was out to the side as if she had just hit a home run. And by how bloody the woman's face and dress she was the ball.

The woman was further back than before she charged at them, once again clutching her face and growling. The woman released her face, her eyes still closed, she was panting and her growling got louder with each passing second.

"Get ready!" Viper shouted, readying herself for another swing.

The woman began shaking as her pants and growls began merging into one, her fingers twitching uncontrollably and turned her twitchy head towards them. She briefly paused her animistic noises to take in a quick breath before they were all blinded by her bright red LED lights for eyes that had consumed her pupil and iris and she began screeching at them like a flock of angry demonic birds, making everyone cover their ears. 

Lensha collapsed back to the ground feeling as though she was about to die. She felt the sound penetrate her body and make her chest constrict so hard that saliva and mucus began pouring out of their respective orifices as she began to suffocate. The blaze that was once relegated at the center of her chest had now spread across her entire body, even her eyes and the very tips of her digits burned.

Despite the pain she could feel the once overwhelming feeling of dread begin diminish as the shadow wall around them evaporated into smoke from the top down. Once there was no trace of the wall smoke engulfed the woman and she disappeared as well, still screaming all the while and staring straight at Lensha. She couldn't see it, being that she didn't have any viable pupils but she could defiantly feel it. 

When she was finally gone Viper was the first one to uncover her ears.

"Is everyone okay!?" she turned back and shouted louder than usual, struggling to hear herself over the ringing in her ears.

"As okay as I'll ever be." Rome groaned as he scratched the inside of his ear with his pinky.

"Lensha, Gloris, Chec?"

"I'm fine, I think." Gloris spoke, rubbing her throbbing head "Lensha?" she asked squatting we next to her. Lensha could only respond with frantic gasps as she tried to get air back into her lungs "Oh shit, are you chocking!?" she nodded just as frantically as her erratic breaths. Gloris cocked her fist back and punched her hard in the center of her upper back, it hurt like all hell but it did the trick. She let out a series of loud coughs as her lungs expanded its fresh oxygen as she coughed up excess mucus.

"Tha-Thank y-" she tried to speak through her coughing fit.

"Don't try to speak, its no problem, bud." she began rubbing her back.

"Chec, are you alright?" he was staring at Crow who he had long ago draped across his lap while he knelt to the ground and didn't respond "Chec?" she spoke louder, still no response "Chec!" she shouted, finally managing to get his attention.

"Yes!?" he shouted louder than all of them making them all flinch, Rome covered his ears and groaned.

"Are you okay?"

"What!? I can't hear you, I didn't cover my ears!!" Viper squinted at him, her left eyes twitching.

"Why the hell not!?!" she snapped.

"I had to cover Crow's!!" Viper's angry demeanor quickly melted away.

"Alright, fine, everyone go inside, I'll try to call the cops again." she sighed pinching the skin between her eyebrows and pointing towards the doors. Everyone did as told, Gloris helped Lensha inside, who was still coughing while Rome went over to Chec and signaled for him to get up. He did and he carried Crow in bridal style.

"If you turn out to have permanent hearing loss I swear I'll kill that woman myself..." she grumbled to herself as she followed in behind them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I tried to focus more on the characters than the story in this chapter. It kinda shows, because this chapter may be a bit boring. Please tell me what you think! ^^


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